Nahum: Celebrating God's Wrath #2

Nahum: Celebrating the Wrath of God, 2

When Nahum is read carelessly or superficially it is thought to be a crass nationalistic blast from a blind patriot. Many have accused the prophet of such blindness. And the church down through the years has not heard the word either because Nahum is left out of lectionary readings.

 

But Nahum is not nationalistic pride. Nahum is a celebration of the goodness of God’s wrath. God’s wrath is good news because it means, finally, salvation for Israel! God’s judgment means deliverance from oppression. Nahum is the assurance that evil will be dealt with by a just and patient God.

The Character of God (1.2-11)

Nahum opens with a magnificent hymn (his poetry is among the most exquisite in the Bible). This hymn is a rich testimony to the covenantal character of Yahweh and needs to be read as such. Here we have a testimony to his love and patient mercy; his protection of his people and of his final defeat of evil in this world. 

Nahum opens up his hymn with a statement that God is a “jealous” (Heb. quanno) God. This word is deeply rooted in covenantal theology and has nothing to do with pettiness or self-centeredness. Indeed the word can also be translated as “zealous” and this just may be a better rendering. God is “zealous” for his people, he is “protective” of that which is his. His protective zeal for his people is rooted in the covenant of promise and love. The Assyrians have declared war on God’s people and have thus declared war on Yahweh himself.

But Yahweh is more than zealous or jealous he is “slow to anger” (v.3). This declaration of Nahum echoes the Israelite creed in Exodus 34

The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, SLOW TO ANGER, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished

The confession of Israel, and Nahum, is that Yahweh is an incredibly gracious and patient God. (For more on this foundational "creed" of Israel see Here: "The Gracious and Compassionate God") And to the Israelite surely it seemed as though it took “forever” for Yahweh to “not leave guilty Assyrian unpunished!” These Assyrians had, since the accession of Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BCE) terrorized the People of God. From 736 to 722/1 the Assyrians had systematically decimated the northern tribes of Israel deporting them to be, for all intents and purposes, lost from history. During Hezekiah’s day the Assyrians had gone through Judah with impunity and destroyed forty-six cities and “shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem like a caged bird.” Under Manasseh (687-642) the Assyrians even had their gods placed in the temple. Yes, indeed, Yahweh has been “slow to anger.” This is part of his strength. Yet as Martin Luther once wrote, “It is a weakness of ours that we want the Lord to take vengeance right now.” But God is “slow to anger” because he is “mighty in power” and rich in grace … even for the hated Assyrians (see Jonah). 

God is a Stronghold

In Nahum it is God who is the avenger and protector. Nothing in Nahum suggests that any Israelite ever so much as lifted a hand in anger against Assyria. Thus Nahum knows nothing of a nationalistic militarism. It is not a call to arms but a call to faith in the goodness and faithfulness of God. Nahum is the “gospel of peace” because Yahweh will deal with his enemies (cf. 1.15).

But Nahum’s “comforting” message is not simply the destruction of Assyria but rather God is “good” and that he is “a refuge in times of trouble” (1.7-8). Nahum in fact emphasizes the “goodness” of the Lord through his sentence structure. It is literally “Good is the Lord.” Just as in the dismal days of bondage in Egypt the Lord “protected” his people in the days of trouble of the Ten Plagues. This message of Nahum is one that we sing frequently but perhaps do not grasp the significance of the words. The song “Had it Not Been For the Lord” is taken straight from Psalm 124. It is a confession of the gracious deliverance of Israel from God’s enemies, it is the comforting message from the prophet:

If the LORD had not been on our side—

let Israel say—

if the LORD had not been on our side

when men attacked us,

when their anger flared against us,

they would have swallowed us alive;

the flood would have engulfed us,

the torrent would have swept over us,

the raging waters would have swept us away.

Praise be to the LORD,

who has not let us be torn by their teeth.

We have escaped like a bird

out of the fowler’s snare;

the snare has been broken,

and we have escaped.

Our help is in the name of the LORD,

the maker of heaven and earth.

Nahum believes the creed and sings the hymn! God is gracious and slow to anger. But the Lord is good and “cares for those who trust in him.” God's goodness is seen in that he deals with evil and oppression. The enemy has “plotted against the LORD” (vv. 9, 11b) and has “devised evil” thus Yahweh has come to set his people free once again.

Hearing the Good News in Our Day

Nahum’s incredibly good news can be grasped readily through an act of imagination. You are Jewish and in Auschwitz. You and your family watched the rise of National Socialism and the “free” election of Adolf Hitler in 1933. You watched the Nazis first emblazon graffiti on your synagogue, home and business. Then you watched them burn your house of worship and the Torah. Then you watched them take your grandparents because they were not “useful.” Then they took your entire family including yourself. Now you are in a place that is probably the closest to hell on earth. You watch as guards rape and abuse young girls. You watch as folks disappear into a cell block never to be heard from again (think Elie Wiesel’s The Night). Then one day a bomber flies overhead and drops leaflets and you grab one before a SS soldier gets to you. The paper says “Allied Soldiers have Landed in France. We are coming. Hitler is doomed!” How do you think that message would have been “heard” in Auschwitz?? Would it have been seen as “good news?” It is nothing less than a message of "life!!"

This is the message of Nahum. God is coming. Evil’s days are numbered. At this very moment it is on the ropes. What a refreshing and liberating message. It is why Nahum celebrates the wrath of God.

God’s wrath means destruction of evil. It is always Good News for his people. What God promises through Nahum ... Jesus Christ did in and through the Cross.

See also Nahum: Celebrating God's Wrath #1

Shalom,

Bobby Valentine

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When It Rains It Pours

When It Rains ... It Pours ... at least some of the Time

It is "monsoon" season here in the desert. Now the monsoons did not really kick up until about a week ago and we have been getting some rain nearly everyday. Today, however, when it was supposed to be VBS work day Noah's deluge decided to come. I have learned that the desert does not really soak up the water. No the ground here seems to reject water and it simply runs off. And it does so fairly quickly.

I have seen rain before. In New Orleans it could rain and rain hard. In Mississippi it rained and it rained hard. But here in the desert it seems like it tries to shove six months supply into thirty minutes (you know it only rains two or three times a year here! :-) Today it rained.

They have a "Stupid Motorist Law" here in the desert. If you drive your car into a street that has water running over it they call you a "stupid motorist." It may only look a couple of inches but it is usually more like 10, 12 or more. I saw my first "stupid motorist" today. I saw a fellow drive his Chrysler 300M into the water on the corner of Sabino Canyon and Tanque Verde (a major intersection) and his expensive car died. the road at that point dips and water collects. The water was not quit half-way up his door panel but the care was completely swamped. The firemen were rescuing him. I did not have my camera or it would be on my blog.

Here are a few photos though:



Just a light rain ...




What the Tanque Verde wash normally looks like ... More water in the Sahara Desert







The Wash from east and west ...



The Catalinas after the rain from my front lawn ... The clouds hanging on the mountains make for a striking image (the picture just does not do it justice).

Thanks for looking at the pictures from my world.

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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Tag from John Dobbs

Tag from John Dobbs

My friend and fellow blogger, John Dobbs, has tagged me. He has asked that I divulge eight random facts, and meaningless!, about myself. So here goes ...

1) I put pepper on my french fries

2) I hate to shave

3) I am on a diet ... not doing so well but I am on a diet

4) I secretly envy song leaders

5) I like Sponge Bob

6) One of my favorite things to do is simply talk with friends about whatever

7) "Let It Be" is my least favorite Beatles LP

8) My three favorite people in the world are: Pamella, Rachael and Talya

9) One to grow on ... Butterfinger is my favorite candy bar ... MMs with peanuts rule ...

I am supposed to "tag" eight more people according to John. I had to think if I had eight folks who read my blog ... but here is who I came up with: Matt Dabbs, David Cook, Gary Cleveland, Red-Headed Step Child, Sherry Lollar, Sandy, Vonnie, and Steve Puckett


There I think that is eight

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Nahum: Celebrating God's Wrath #1

Nahum: Celebrating the Wrath of God!? (Part 1)

The Abuse of Wrath

My title my be a bit surprising considering the bad rap God’s wrath has gotten in recent times. I recall growing up and having a lively, and misguided, preacher practically scare the you know what out of me. These preachers usually cite such passages as 2 Thessalonians 1.5-10, Christians are then made to fear the wrath of God or the coming of the Lord Jesus. Yet Paul's intent or purpose in those passages is just the opposite of my preacher: Paul says of the coming of the Lord, for example, that we “encourage one another” with this hope (1 Thess 4.18). Further, Paul is writing to lift the spirits of the down trodden and persecuted Thessalonians by reminding them that God will deal with his enemies and the enemies of his People. In Thessalonians it is those who don’t know God, those who don’t know Christ, those who wage war on his people that are warned to beware! The wrath of God is not directed at his people in Thessalonians. Rather the Wrath of God is directed on behalf of God's People! His coming in wrath proves that he is a God of love to his people in Thessalonians.

Beginning to "Hear" Nahum

Nahum, that book that has languished in the bowels of neglect and obscurity, can really help God’s People today to grasp the good news of God’s wrath. Nahum helps us to celebrate the wrath of God. Nahum deserves careful, thoughtful and reflective reading. Though piously affirming the “authority” of Scripture some preachers have recently, and shockingly, suggested that reading Scripture within its context is not necessary. Such a procedure functionally makes the whims of the preacher the authority rather than the text. But Nahum must be read with in its historical context and within the context of redemptive history in the Story of God.

Nahum delivered his message between 663 BCE and 612. The Egyptian city of Thebes mentioned in 3.8 was destroyed by the Assyrians in 663 so that is the earliest it could have been preached. Nineveh was destroyed in 612 so that is the latest it could have been preached. Most scholars would place the book after 625 and that is a reasonable date.

Assyria during the eighth and seventh centuries BCE was noted for its thirst for blood and debased cruelty. Its armies wreaked total destruction upon their captive’s lands, but they also systematically deported defeated peoples and replaced them with foreign populations. The northern kingdom of Israel suffered such a fate at the hands of Assyria when Samaria was destroyed in 722 BCE and for all intents and purposes disappeared from history forever.

Assyria was the superpower of the day. She was a ruthless state. Her name become a synonym with terror. Nineveh was nearly an impregnable fortress, guarded by walls, moats, the River Khusar. The city was unsuccessfully besieged by the Medes in 614. The Medes were joined by the Scythians and Babylonians and after a two and a half month siege the wall was breached. The fighting was savage and intense as recent archeological investigation has shown.

In our next installment we will look at the theological message of Nahum … whose name, interestingly, in Hebrew means comfort … has for his people and why it is called the good news of peace!!! One cannot say "nahum" without saying "comfort." God is comforting his people because he is a God of loving and saving justice ... what good news that is to his oppressed little band of people.

Shalom,

Bobby Valentine

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Speaking of reading ... Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released at 12:01 am this morning. Wow! What a night in the bookstore!

About a six weeks ago Rachael and I made a date for daddy-girl time: Friday, July 20 we would be at Borders Bookstore for the "Deathly Hallows Bash." We reserved our copy. Yesterday we went up and got our wristband with our placement in the book buying (Silver with two bars in the first Borders ... that means were in the second "huge" group).

We arrived at Borders last night about 9 pm and the place was already filling up. We found a spot in the children's book section to be near the festivities. There was Harry Potter spelling bee. There was a Snape debate. And there was a costume contest. And there were some great costumes. Rachael was Hermione and looked great.

I was blown away by how many folks were there. There were thousands! I knew Potter was an "event" but I was not prepared for the numbers last night. Once midnight struck the only activity that mattered was getting your book and getting out of there. So you listened for your color and the number of bars and its placement on your wristband. We finally got our copy at 1:32 am and Rachael was smiling from ear to ear. I took the book and read the last page quickly and knew immediately what is going to happen. Now in the next day or so we will find out how they got there.

I hope we created a few memories for Rachael. I had a good time and I know she did too. Sometimes we have to read ... the fun stuff too.

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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Why Do We Read? Part 2

Read Why We Read? Part One Here

In modern America many would rather watch reality TV that sit in a nook with a book. But there are many positive reasons to take up and read. In this blog I want to share just a few thoughts along these lines.

Reading is what has been called a "cool medium" that invites us to step back and ponder critically what we have encountered. We can stop at any time and compare what we have read with what we previously have known from other sources. We can build bridges between the text and our own experience through a "fusion of horizons." Good reading trains us to think issues and perspectives through for ourselves.

TV on the other hand is a "hot medium." It comes prepackaged and speaks directly to emotions. It often passes on an agenda through the use of camera angles, editing, graphic images and even outright fabrication. TV is food for the mind that is is meant to be swallowed without being chewed. It is sort of like the strained bananas we used to give our children.

Thomas Merton writes clearly on the matter. He said "the life of a television-watcher is a kind of caricature of contemplation. Passivity, uncritical absorption, receptivity, inertia. Not only that but a gradual yielding to the mystic attraction until one is spellbound in a state of complete union ... [it] is the nadir of intellectual and emotional slavery" ("Inner Experience: Problems of the Contemplative Life (VII)," Cistercian Studies Quarterly 19 [1984], 269-270.

This blog is not about the evils of TV. I enjoy some TV every once in a while (especially during football season). Rather I am lamenting the loss, or the diminishing value, of reading in our culture ... both "secular" and religious. This is true even among preachers folks who live and die by "words."

Yet there is something beautiful about the sight of a person absorbed in reading. The body is stilled and the mind is quieted. There is a concentration of mental energy and a gentle, and healing, withdrawal from the ups and downs of life.

Reading is in the service of the spiritual life. Not only does it broaden the mind by extending the range of interests, but it also brings about a certain refinement that is the opposite of coarseness or vulgarity. There are of course different kinds of reading. The kind I am promoting is not mere speed reading to see how many books one can simply pass through. No, I echo the words of Michael Casey who opined that a good book, like fine wine, cannot be savored in a hurry!

But reading is not simply to be enjoyed. Our reading is designed to take us somewhere. A good book should never leave us as we where when we picked it up. A good book is an invitation to grow beyond what we are at present, to view issues from a different perspective, to add fresh elements to our synthesis of reality as we encounter it. Thus good reading is dialogical. We are not asked to sell out our understanding or convictions merely because they have been challenged. Rather we are invited to a conversation that will enable us to nuance our convictions and the reasons for holding them in response to implied or explicit criticism. Understanding a point of view that is strange to us often serves as a means of bringing to the surface deeply held convictions that hitherto we have not closely examined.

My final thought for this blog on reading is trite at first glance but much more significant than we might first think. Good reading is a source of enjoyment and refreshment that can and does help us recuperate from the stress of our vocations.

Tolle lege,
Bobby Valentine

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Abiline Travel Log

Abilene Travel Log

I left early Wednesday morning (4 am) for Abilene, TX and arrived about 5:30 CT. I arrived back in Tucson last night. It was a wonderful trip. My purpose was to visit with Fran Moser Winkles and live in the library ... but more of that in a moment. First some interesting details ...

First it is a long way from Tucson to Abilene (about 750 miles). For such a trip you need plenty of things to spin in the CD player. So I listened to Jonathan Pennington's New Testament Greek Vocabulary (every word in the NT down to words that occur 10x). My musical companions were the Beatles (Rubber Soul), Pink Floyd (Echoes), Bruce Springsteen (The Rising), and U2 (The Best of 1990-2000).

Second, this is for my friend John Dixon in Milwaukee. I went through Sweetwater, the land of Windmills and Rattlesnake rounds. But I also learned that in Sweetwater, Texans confess the real glory of the better states, :-) There is a street called Alabama Avenue!!!

As I was traveling through El Paso I had a hard time finding an English language radio station. I found it humorous that I found on the Spanish language channel the best music I could understand ... AC/DC (Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution) and the commercial for Pepsi ... :-)

On the way back, between Midland (the home of G.W. and Laura Bush) and Odessa the most interesting thing happened. I spotted a low flying aircraft crossing the hwy some distance in front of me. Then he flew parallel to I-20. Then he (or she!) literally buzzed us on the hwy. The plane flew no higher than 300 feet nearly right over my Saturn Vue. Now this was not a crop duster or a little Cessna. To my amazement it was a World War II B-24 Liberator heavy bomber. If you do not know what that looks like you can find one here.

In Abilene I received the generous hospitality Dr. Carisse Berryhill and her lovely family. She is the director of the Center for Restoration Studies at Abilene Christian University. While at the Library I ran into my friend Edward Robinson who wrote a wonderful study of one of my heroes called To Save My Race From Abuse: The Life of Samuel Robert Cassius. Ed has done a great service to the church through this book. Also while there I had one of those moments of special providence. Though I was looking for Moser treasure, I was given much more. I came away with an entire set of the Christian Baptist, The Campbell-Walker Debate, The Campbell-Purcell Debate, and Campbell's Popular Lectures and Addresses. I came away with DeGroot's The Restoration Principle; The Autobiography of J. W. McGarvey; Isbell's War and Conscience; and some fairly rare sermon books as well as other goodies and they literally dropped into my lap. God is good!!

I was able to stand in the very pulpit that Thomas Campbell preached in every Lord's Day while in Ahory, Ireland before he immigrated to the United States in 1807. That was fun.



I was also able to spend a good portion of the day with Fran and Dub Winkles on Thursday and Friday (we went to The Towne Crier for dinner on Friday nite). Fran graciously talked to me and answered dozens of my questions. She opened up her father's papers to me. I was able to tie together many loose ends in my Moser research. In the library I found lots of treasures hidden in obscure places (like a genuine letter from K. C. Moser to W.D. Ledlow in Batsell Baxter's Thorp Spring Christian College gradebook for 1918-1919!! I has been stuck there since 1920). I was able to locate some class materials that he gave out in 1965 and 1966. And most of all Fran let me read Moser's personal journals ... these are interesting!

Perhaps I will have enough material now to write my biography of K. C. Moser: Apostle of Grace to the Churches of Christ (or some such title!).

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On Top of Mt Lemmon

On Top of Mt Lemmon



It looks like someone did not make the curve. This is a van that is WAY down in the gorge. Zoomed in with my camera. Not sure how long that van has been there but it looks like a long time.




Rachael and Talya at Windy Point



The Road along the Mountain side.



Hey, there are trees in Arizona!! You just have to go nearly 10,000 feet up to find them, :-)




What Tucson looks like from the very top of Mt Lemmon. The little white specks are houses. The brown strip is the air force base that covers several miles ... looks small from here. The trees are bare because of the fire a couple years ago on Mt Lemmon.

Blessings,
Bobby Valentine

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Why Do We Read?

Why Do We Read?

One of the saddest things I have ever heard in my life came from a minister who had been preaching for nearly forty years. That this minister was being held up as a model for young ministers to follow made it doubly tragic. What was the sad statement? He said, “I have not changed my mind on a religious topic in nearly forty years.” I suppose if Jesus had made that statement it would not have troubled me. In a Q & A session with a small group of students, this question was put to this brother by a person to remain unnamed: “Can you recommend three or four books or authors that you think are superior?” The ministers’ reply was “I don’t really like to read.” Suddenly it dawned on the unnamed student why he had not changed his mind in forty years!

I cannot imagine what it would be like to try to go through life without the blessing of books. Books in reality are nothing but the story of humanity and by reading I am simply learning more about myself and those who share the third rock from the Sun with me. Books delight the soul and help lift the mind from baser themes.

For example one of my favorites from childhood has been A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. My soft spot for Pooh was discovered by some folks recently as they found me reading John Tyerman Williams Pooh and the Philosophers. What delightful book in which we learn that Pooh indeed is the greatest philosopher of them all! In fact all philosophy is simply a preamble to Winnie-the-Pooh. The bear that can help us with purity of heart and humility, I thrilled to learn, was also outdoing Plato, Locke, and Camus. Through a book we are taken back to that place of safety, that place of innocence, that place we so often forget: the hundred acre wood where we can find friendship, we find joy, we find that life really is about just a few basic things. As an adult when I read Pooh I scratch my head and ask, “who is Milne talking too? children or adult readers?”

I am not even forty years old (much less have preached that long) yet but I cannot imagine living those forty years without the help and insight of my favorite philosopher: Winnie-the-Pooh. I have changed my mind on religious topics and “secular” topics on a whole host of things. Books have opened up new horizons for me, books that have forced me to think from a different perspective, books that have exposed my near sightedness have been responsible for much my rethinking. Books have helped deliver me from what Mortimer J. Adler calls a “foolish and wasteful form of snobbishness and provinciality.” Was this growth? or was it decline? Over the next few days we will be exploring several reasons that we should be readers … good readers.

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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Stoned Mug Shot

Stoned Mug Shot

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What's Happening in Bobby's World

What's Happening In Bobby's World

First let me apologize to my four or five readers for my extended absence from blogging. This was not really a planned sabbatical from contributing to the noise of cyberspace rather it sort of just happened.

Over the last two weeks I have been either out of town speaking at a conference or on top of Mt. Graham. From June 21 to 23 I was in Detroit, MI at Rochester College attending the Christian Scholars Conference. The Plenary Addresses were given by Philip Jenkins of Penn State. Jenkins has written two very well received books: The Next Christendom and The New Faces of Christianity. I will be sharing more about these books in the near future. But to say that I was enthused by Jenkins presentations is an understatement. Rarely can I say that a scholar has so held my attention. And his presentations were simply rich.

I presented a paper to the Conference on Friday afternoon titled:

"In with Wallace; Out with Brewer: K. C. Moser, The Herald of Truth and the 1920s"

I shared the results of some of my research into the development of Moser's theology and ministry from 1920s and made the case that Moser underwent a revolution of his core theology. That he in the beginning of the 1920s was in fact part of the Texas Tradition and closely associated with Foy E. Wallace Jr but between 1924 and 1926 encountered a "Spirit" that broke his back.

I had one of the most interesting journeys back from Detroit to Tucson that I have ever had. I flew from Detroit right over downtown Milwaukee and into the little bitty airport in Madison, WI. I was there for two hours and then flew to the Twin Cities and was there for many hours. Our 757 had multiple problems. We were taxing out and the right engine died on us. We had to be towed back. We waited for about an hour and half on the plane. Then they decided we needed to deplane and get on another one. I ended back home a little after 3 am. I awoke to teach my class (Hosea: The Heart of God) and preach (Community 101: A Resurrected People from Ephesians 2).

As soon as worship was over we packed everything quickly into my Saturn Vue and made the three hour trip up to Arizona Church of Christ Bible Camp. Camp is on top of Mt Graham at about 10,000 ft. We left Tucson and it was about 107 but on top of the mountain it was right about 75ish. What a wonderful change!!

Pamella and I were the Bible teachers for camp. Our theme was the Shema: Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord, is One. You shall love the Lord with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. We had a great time.

In Mississippi we were worried about bugs in the cabins. In Wisconsin we were worried about mice and the like. On Mt. Graham we worried about the bears getting in. We had a bear and her cub visit us several times. We discovered her about a hundred yards or so off the boys cabins. The next night after lights out she made her presence known through the middle of the camp. She was not a small bear. Bears make camp interesting to say the least!

On friday we made a five mile hike at 10,000 ft to a lake. At the lake there is a "lookout" that is nothing short of breathtaking. You are standing at the edge of a ledge that drops a thousand feet or so. The ledge looks out into the valley that is 10,000 ft below. On a good clear day you can see for 150 miles. From Mt Graham we could see the mountains by our house. I have a couple of pictures that I plan to post in the next day or two from the look out. It was stunning.

Well that is my report, the short version, of what has been going on. Thanks for checking in and reading.

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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