Diamond-hard hearts

But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts.

Zechariah 7:11-12

This section of the prophet Zechariah is a review of the history of Judah that led the nation into the seventy years of captivity in Babylon. It begins with request of the people of Bethel. They simply wanted to know if it was proper to observe the month of fasting that had become customary among the Jews to mourn their captivity in Babylon. Now that they were back in the land, they wondered what to do.

The answer is enigmatic. God replies first with a set of questions about priorities. He asks if the fasts were indeed for “Him” (Zechariah 7:5). He assumes that the taking of food and drink was for their own nourishment (Zechariah 7:6). He reminds them to look to the words of the prophets that came before the captivity (Zechariah 7:7).

Then God uses the occasion of this question to remind everyone what led to the Babylonian captivity. He let them know that the expectations for His people then had not changed. What God wanted for Israeli society then was the same expectation. They should be just, caring, kind, merciful, helpful to the poor and the orphaned, and hospitable to the stranger and the poor. (Zechariah 9-10). The generation that went into the exile had failed to do this.

The language used to describe that generation makes it clear that they deliberately chose to disobey God in these matters. They turned a stubborn shoulder. They covered their ears. It was not just a matter of negligence, but rather disobedience that dishonored God in the matter. And they knew what they were doing. They knew God had sent His command through the prophets. But they hardened their hearts to diamond density. That is what led to their judgment.

The message from this warning is to guard the heart. It is to maintain a tender willingness to hear and respond to God’s Word. It is to turn from selfish concerns and care for needs around us. This is what cultivates God’s desires for our hearts.

Technorati Tags: Zechariah,Heart,Judgment

Better Days Coming

But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

Malachi 4:2

One of the underlying themes of Malachi is contrast between God’s disobedient people and God’s obedient people. This chapter provides the final picture of that contrast in the future “day of the Lord”. God’s picture in strong. In Malachi 4:1 the disobedient are set ablaze like stubble in a field, burning in the oven of God’s judgment. Malachi 4:3 sees them as nothing but ashes under the soles of the righteous. Pretty rough language.

Those who fear God’s name are encouraged to see that future time as a new refreshing day. Righteousness rises with a new sun and healing comes to those who have suffered for doing right. They are giddy and playful like calves set free from overnight stabling in a barn stall. God longs for joy to mark the lives of His people, and judgment alone is not the vision God has for Israel. He also wants them to know unspeakable joy in His work and presence.

The prophet ends with a call for Israel to return to obedience to the law of Moses. They were showing horrible contempt for it, mixing the outward forms of it with inward disdain. God wants His people to love His Word and His decrees again. That is how they will love Him. He is after their hearts, and the final admonition of Malachi shows this. God would capture their hearts by sending “Elijah” with a generationally stirring message to them (Malachi 4:5-6). He will turn families toward each other, and toward God. This is promised before the day of reckoning to God is at hand. Of course, this was clearly answered in the first advent in the ministry of John the Baptist. I believe it will be strongly shown before Christ’s second advent, possibly with the direct ministry of Elijah in Israel again. God will keep His Word.

This little prophet of Malachi has had a lot to say about the heart that truly should turn to God. I have been surprised at its relevance to my own. God always is concerned for the heart, and I should not be surprised that my heart is the target of His word and His Spirit’s work. It is where He does His most important work. And better days are coming when a final move of God in calling people to Him and judging those who reject His work will make a world where the best work of His in all hearts will mark everything everyone does.

Technorati Tags: Malachi,Heart,Judgment

At the heart of the matter.

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.
Matthew 15:18-20a

This is the core teaching of Christ that gets to me. I know it to be real. I know that it is what is inside my heart that is most evil. And the sin there is what I cannot seem to control, no matter how much I resent it being there. Evil crops up and comes out. And it comes from the heart.

The Pharisees and Jewish authorities of Jesus' day had external religion tied down. They pushed so hard for conformance to rules. But they failed miserably at transformation of the heart. And that is where Jesus excels. He gets to the root issues by insisting that the kind of change He brings is one of the heart.

I personally know that is where the Christian life begins and grows in me. It is at the heart. It is internal. It is a war inside of me. And Jesus brings victory and not only defines the struggle, but offers hope beyond it.

Technorati Tags: Jesus,heart,religion

The problem with strict fundamentalism.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:20

The more I have studied the world of the New Testament, the more troubled I have become by this statement by Jesus. The scribes and the Pharisees were sticklers for the letter of the law. They not only held to the keeping of the Law as detailed in the Pentateuch by the "book" but to ensure compliance they added roughly 600 additional prohibitions and commandments just to make sure they got the details right! They were the original legalists and though their view of scripture was doctrinally "fundamentalist", their application of it became sterile and one-dimensional.

That is the danger of strict fundamentalism. It might exalt conformity to an external standard against true transformation of the heart. This is what Jesus would fight against with the religious elite of His day. He knew that God wanted hearts, not conformity to a rigid standard. And Jesus preached as much with the Sermon on the Mount.

Joni and I sat down to watch Fireproof this weekend. I was touched by the strong gospel presentation in the movie. There is a point where the young fire captain is confronted by his dad with the reality that even though he might be a "hero" or a "good man" in terms of saving people's lives in his job as fireman, he was inwardly not meeting Jesus' standards for holiness. Of course in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that hate is as bad in the heart as murder is in life, and adultery is the same root issue as lust. That is where the gospel gets to the heart of the "hero" in Fireproof. He realizes his heart issues are what separate him from God.

That is where our righteousness is to exceed that of the external commitments of the Pharisees. God wants to get to the heart. And the heart is changed by the renewing work of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures. We are transformed by the renewing of the mind.

Sin is pervasive. I think of total depravity in these terms: I could have done any of the worst sins externally, even if I have not. And I know that the roots of all the worst sins exist from time to time in my lusting, wanting, sinful heart so that in Jesus' terms I probably I have done them. So when it comes to sin I "could have and probably did"! But salvation changes that. I am a new creation. I now have a new heart that will allow me to follow a new and living way. Now my righteousness, because it is the righteousness of Christ graciously applied to my account as a new creation in Christ, can exceed mere external conformance.

Technorati Tags: Jesus,Sermon on the Mount,Transformation,legalism,Fundamentalism

God’s concern for the heart…

The Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it."
Genesis 4:6-7

I find it interesting that the conversation that we have recorded in this passage is not between God and Abel, but between God and Cain. When we read in the text that God was not pleased with Cain's sacrifice, we would think that God would have also been uninterested in pursuing anything with Cain, but that is not the case. In fact, these verses show us quite the opposite situation. God was interested in helping Cain understand what it would take to be right with Him. He is conversing with the rebel heart, drawing it to Himself.

Cain was angry, and I surmise that Cain's heart was not where it should have been prior to this conversation. His sacrifice was certainly the KIND of sacrifice God was pleased with. Many of the levitical offerings concerned fruit and grain offerings. But it was the heart behind the sacrifice that clearly was the problem, as evidenced by Cain's anger over God's response. It seems Cain had hoped to get by with some sort of physical worship without spiritual engagement. And that is what God corrects with this conversation.

Cain's anger was at God, not himself. God encouraged him to "do well", which was a call to repentance. God promised through the rhetorical question to accept what Cain might have offered with an attitude of "doing well". But Cain was going through the motions, content to let sin crouch at the door. God's warning was that if he was not careful, sin would overtake him like a wild beast. By "doing well" and serving God, he could instead tame it and rule over this dominating sin. But ultimately Cain did not agree with God. And God’s imagery of the wild beast would be all to real… Cain would be that beast.

Of course the result was the first murder, a fratricide, and even then God's mercy came to Cain again. God graciously spared his life for the sake of the human race, but Cain sadly did not seem to learn what it truly meant to worship God and conquer life-dominating sins.

So with Cain we see God's early emphasis on the heart of humanity. It is who we are at the heart that God seeks to help us know, respond to Him with, and cultivate in righteousness.