Pleasing God?

      Have you ever tried to please someone? Have you tried getting the right present for someone you love and want to please? Getting that right card that says just the right thing, I think is difficult.  I am one of those that stands in front of the Halmark Cards and stands and gets in peoples' way, and stands and finally picks a card that is silly or is blank simply because I have stood there too long and I am embarrassed. The problem with the blank cards is I have to figure out just what to say.  And the silly ones may be funny but like most comedy they avoid the real thing you want to say. It is difficult to find the right words, card, present or deeds and really please someone, at least for me. Ah, to see that look of inward glee at being pleased, everything else is master card.
       Now, I hear, I am suppose to please God.  (What do you get the Guy who has everything?)  Actually the Bible in Hebrews 11:6,  says we are unable to please God, or another translation of the Greek word adunaton is "It is impossible" to please God. Well without faith, it is.  But that word can be like a Hallmark Card. What does real faith look like? Which card on the Christian shelf of "righteousness" is it? Is it helping, church attendance, reading the Bible, prayer,  the cards, er ah the list goes on.  Trying to simplify things the Scripture uses Enoch as an example of someone who "pleased" God. He found the right present, lucky guy. How did he do it?
      Sunday our pastor picked up this theme and talked to us about Enoch. As I was reading afterwards about Enoch in Hebrews and then in Genesis,  I noticed that Genesis does not say that Enoch pleased God. It says that Enoch walked with God (by the by Enoch is the Greek [Septuagint] translation of the Hebrew Chanokh). We actually get a lot from the Septuagint (LXX).  A lot of the names of the books of the Bible come from the LXX. Genesis is an example. It comes from the LXX, not the Hebrew Bible.  What else do we get from the LXX? Well Genesis 5:22 in the Hebrew Bible says Enoch walked with God. In the Septuagint, remembering this was translated by "70" rabbis from Hebrew to Greek,  Enoch was "pleasing" to God, instead of "walking" with God.  Used again in verse 24, the Hebrew says Enoch walked with God and he was not. The Greek says he was pleasing to God and was changed. The Vulgate uses translated.  I picture a transporter like on the Star Ship Enterprise. But back to the point, if the writer of the book of Hebrews was reading the Hebrew Bible why did he say Enoch "pleased" God? Actually, he probably got that from the Septuagint.
       So what does this mean? Well I dug a little deeper and found that the form of the verb used in Hebrew for "walked"(yithallekh)  is called a Hithpael. Hebrew has different forms of a word that can vary its meaning slightly. Most languages have this. English does this using contextual clues. We might say "he was fishing for an answer". Does that mean he had a net, or rod and reel and a hook, line and sinker? No, in context it means he was looking for an answer, but "fishing" is more picturesque and a better descriptive word. So researching I found that using this form (Hithpael) of the verb "to walk",  the writer meant that Enoch had a "continual walk" or figuratively was "continually living" with God. And if we think about it we might say that we knew that Enoch and God didn't exercise together every day, or get on a treadmill, like most of us do with God, but he had an existence with God that continued on a daily basis over a lifetime (yeah 300 plus years!).

'Father and Son'
by Verdianu

         So returning to Hebrews 11:5, and 6, I realized that the guy who wrote Hebrews probably used the Septuagint. This was not uncommon in a day when the common language was Greek. Jesus probably read from it. So it is interesting to interpret Genesis from Hebrews, if I may. It says it is" impossible to please God without faith". How does it define faith? It says that "one must believe He is".  Okay, and "He is a rewarded of those who diligently (or earnstly, continually) seek Him." Okay, Okay, I think I found the right card!! Enoch continually lived with God. He didn't look for Him everyday. Like being married, God was just there with Him.  If I continually and I will insert, diligently, live with God this will be pleasing to Him, and I might add I will join Him someday, just like Enoch, only it won't take me 300 years! Then Enoch's life/faith is not out of reach. Christ said that he and the Father would come and take their abode in me (John 15:1-10). I have Christ living in me. I already have what Enoch took 300 years to have and that is life everlasting with the Father. If I believe that, and live with that thought, then I can become pleasing to God. Romans 8 reminds us that if the spirit of God dwells (lives continually) in us, we are pleasing to God! Wow.  Thanks be to God for his son who made and continues to make us pleasing to our Father.
          The word in John 15 for "abide" is meinate, meaning to stay or remain. It is called a constative aorist. Like the branch that stays constantly in the vine, whatever we do will have the Father flowing through it and in it. Maybe Enoch's pleasing ability was that he did not try to be spiritual, religious or righteous, he just constantly stayed in communion with the Father. In chapter 15: 1-10 the word meinate is used 11 times. A son doesn't have to do things to be a son, he simply is one. I don't have to have the "right" card! I am pleasing if I stay in communion with my father. Finally, I know what the Big guy wants.  

        

Word taken from a sermon by Gary Hargrave; "Now We Abide In the Father"

Without an If

"The Hour Is Near"
Oil on canvas by
Anthony Falbo

     When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying for his life, when no hope was in view, He used a phrase to sum up His agony.  He prayed "Father, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless your will be done." Matthew records Jesus prayed this twice, Luke and Mark once. The form of this prayer is what is commonly called a "conditional clause". When the Greeks used the "If...then" sentence or clause,  to them it had special meaning. These conditional phrases fall roughly into four groups (some think five). These groups are called classes by grammarians. They are used over 600 times in the New Testament so it is important to try to understand their use. I say "try" because most translators are still debating their exact usage.

     When Jesus prayed his prayer the writer wanted the reader to feel his agony and depth of travail with the Father. God was asking Jesus to do something he was not wanting to do. Using the first class conditional phrase helped the author convey this depth of feeling. Without going too deeply into an explanation of conditional usages, let it be understood that the first class condition allows the speaker to say something in undertones. An example would be if a mother said to her child "If you put your hand in the fire, (then) it will be burned." What the mother is saying in a polite way is "don't put your hand in the fire!" 

     In order to understand the soul's agony the author uses the first conditional sentence to this affect, "Father, if it be your will (and I suspect it is) let this cup pass from me!". We see Jesus' inner turmoil as he struggles with the temptation of escaping the Father's absolute design. Without the "if" we probably would not have had the window into the depth of our Lord's struggle in his soul. But because we do have that conditional clause we see His struggle and we identify with it. It is the same thing that we go through in our own temptations not to do His will. "Nevertheless, Your will be done", means so much more.  Matthew has Jesus praying this prayer twice. I suspect there was some space between the conditional clause and the nevertheless. Time and space to struggle with letting go and relaxing into His hands. 

Born in a Barn

     In the south if someone does not shut a door all the way,  we would yell at them to "Shut the door!" and then add, "Were you born in a barn?" The idiom probably started on the farm where barn doors are often left open. But it is funny to think that someone, even from the south, might actually be born in a barn. But we know the truth, Jesus was. Not only was he born in a barn, his first cradle was a feeding trough. The Greek word for "feeding trough" is phatne. It is used two times in Luke the 2 chapter to describe Jesus' baby crib ("crib" has a similar derivation or morphology as feeding trough). But we see that today Christianity covers the globe and has millions of dedicated followers. A more humble beginning would be hard to imagine. Even being born in a taxi is a step up from where animals eat and well, live. 

     I was looking yesterday over the fence at the construction of Centers of Learning's (COL) new school building. The workers were on top of the roof putting on flashing and getting it ready to nail down the composition shingles.  COL has had a confirmed word of direction from the Lord to "finish the  High School". So it was awesome for me to stand there and gaze at our work of faith. What part are they building first?  They are building the barn! The stable! The crib! You know where they are going to keep the animals! That's right our multi-million dollar project is starting with a manger. Hmmm. 

      When you think about it, it is perfect. God's work often starts with humble beginnings. Our lives are examples of that. And our Lord when he did show up on earth, He humbled himself (Phil.2). Because of that humble obedience to the word, the world received its savior and its salvation.
      Now we are not trying to save the world by building this school, but our faith does say we can make a difference with a generation of young people. It may not be everything. Compared to what Christ did it may be small, but God warns us by asking "for who dares make light of small beginnings"(Zach. 4:10)? 
       So as I watch the nails being driven and hear the echo of the hammers, I take faith that a new day is being birth at COL, created by obedient faith to the word among us.  It may be a manger now, but someday soon it will be the point of destination for those students wanting to change the world.