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Life is hard.

I think sometimes the stress and troubles of life get so overwhelming, we feel like each day is worse than the one before. Sometimes we feel like the main point of life is just getting through it so that we can eventually die and be free from the pain and frustration of life.

But sometimes life is hard because we don’t have anyone to go through life with us, or who really understands just how hard life can be.

So I was encouraged today to read a post by Dave Criddle called “The Jesus who Struggled.” Here is an excerpt:

Jesus had anxiety for the future

Knowing what’s going to happen doesn’t always help. Jesus knew what lay ahead of Him as He prayed in Gethsemane, but He still struggled with it (Luke 22:39-44). He knew it was God’s will, but He didn’t want it to be. He knew it was right, but He didn’t want it to happen. He was scared about what was to come. He knew that struggle.

Jesus experienced political maneuvering

Jesus’ opposition didn’t like Him and they were scared of Him, but they didn’t deal with it openly. They engaged in back room deals, gossip, half-truths and outright lies. They were plotting (Matthew 21:46). And Pilate (John 18:28–19:16) knew there was no real case against Jesus. But instead of saying so, he tried the politically-sensible way out – Barabbas. That didn’t work, but instead of sticking to His convictions that Jesus was innocent, he let Jesus be crucified to keep the people happy. All politically-motivated. He knew that struggle.

Jesus felt far from God

While He had mostly enjoyed a very close and intimate relationship with God in His life, as He hung on the cross God was nowhere to be seen or heard or felt. ‘My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?’ This wasn’t imagined. God had turned His face away. When we feel God is distant, God’s Son knows how we feel. He knew that struggle, too.

Go read the rest of the post here: The Jesus Who Struggled

If you have ever found yourself thinking that life is hard, it may be helpful to remember that Jesus has gone through the same struggles as well, and He understands. He wants to walk with you through these struggles and trials so that you don’t have to face them alone.

The Flood According to 2 Peter 2:5-7

By Jeremy Myers

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When seeking answers on how to understand the flood in light of Jesus Christ, we must also consider what Peter writes in 2 Peter 2. His statements are critically important, for Peter lived and walked with Jesus, and would likely have heard how Jesus explained the flood. Furthermore, since Peter was one of the apostles, his explanation of the flood event in 2 Peter 2 provides an authoritative, biblical explanation for how to understand this difficult passage.

Translating 2 Peter 2:5-7

Note first that, as with the Hebrew text in Genesis 6–7, the temptation exists to retranslate the Greek text in 2 Peter 2:5 so that it shows something different from what is usually found in most English translations.

And in fact, this would be somewhat easy to do, since these first several verses of 2 Peter 2 are full of Greek participles, which are notoriously difficult to translate and understand in context. With Greek participles, there are always a host of questions about how the participle is functioning in context.

So just as with the Genesis text, I initially thought of basing my understanding of this passage on a different translation of 2 Peter 2:5.

But in the end, I decided against this option for two reasons.

First, the average English translation of this text is fine, and second, I do not want readers of the English Bible to think that the only way they can see Jesus in the violent passages of Scripture is through creative translations from the Greek and Hebrew.

The Context of 2 Peter 2:5

The key to 2 Peter 2:5—as with any text in the Bible—is context. Peter begins this section of his letter by warning about false teachers and how they bring swift destruction upon themselves.

This initial verse is critical for understanding the rest of this section in 2 Peter 2. After talking about how the false teachers are bringing destruction upon themselves, Peter is going to give several examples from biblical history about other groups of people who were destroyed.

In the following verses, God is often implied to be the agent of destruction—as the one who brought the destruction, as the one who carried it out. But as 2 Peter 2:1 indicates, the reason for the destruction is quite clear: the false teachers bring this destruction upon themselves. They are the ones who brought it. They are ones to blame (2 Peter 2:1-3).

Furthermore, in the verses that follow, the primary action of God is not death and destruction, but deliverance and rescue of people from destruction. The repeated emphasis in 2 Peter 2:4-9 is not on how God destroys people but on how God saves and rescues people.

Peter gives three examples. First, he writes about the angels who sinned, and so were not spared (2 Peter 2:4). Peter then sets these angels in contrast to Noah whom God did rescue when the flood came upon the earth (2 Peter 2:5). Finally, Peter mentions Lot, who was rescued from Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Peter 2:6-8). In 2 Peter 2:9, Peter summarizes his point by saying that the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials while allowing the unrighteous to continue toward their punishment.

Following these three examples, Peter goes on to emphasize once again that these false teachers have every opportunity to escape destruction, but they continue moving deeper into sin, wickedness, and corruption until they too are destroyed (2 Peter 2:10-22). Just as Peter wrote in 2 Peter 2:1, the actions of the false teachers are bringing this destruction upon themselves.

God is not sending the destruction, but rather, is seeking to deliver and rescue people from the destruction. Yet when destruction comes upon these false teachers, it is the natural consequence of their life and behavior. The only way that God is “responsible” for their destruction is that He set up the rules by which people could either seek life or seek destruction. When people seek destruction, destruction will come!

2 Peter 2 and the Flood

So it was in the case of the flood. When Peter writes in 2 Peter 2:5 that the flood was brought upon the people at the time of Noah, Peter uses the exact same word he uses in 2:1 to write about how the false teachers brought destruction upon themselves (Gk., epagō, “to bring upon”). The flood was brought upon the people in the days of Noah in the same way that destruction is brought upon false teachers, and chains of darkness were brought upon angels who sinned, and fire and brimstone was brought upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

The great sin of the people who lived at the time of the flood invited in the destruction that took their lives.

Even in 2 Peter 2:4, Peter says that the angels were handed over, or delivered up, to their judgment. This again is the common terminology used throughout Scripture to describe the process by which God gives His creatures the freedom to go their own way, even when it is in rebellion to Him. He hands them over to their sin. He gives them up to it. God’s creation lived in sin and rebellion and as a natural consequence of their wickedness, death and destruction came upon them.

In 2 Peter 2, Peter is clearly revealing the idea that sin cannibalizes itself and when sin takes root and leads us further away from God, there comes a point when we depart from God’s protective hand, and invite ruin and destruction upon ourselves.

When this happens, however, all is not lost. God is faithful to rescue, redeem, and deliver a righteous remnant for Himself out of the death and destruction that comes upon the wicked.

The Consequences of Sin in 2 Peter 3

This is exactly the point that Peter makes in 2 Peter 3. In 2 Peter 3:3-7, he returns to the topic of the flood to make his point once again about how God will deal with people who follow their own evil desires in the last days. Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:6 that the world perished when it was flooded with water. God’s creative work is described in 2 Peter 3:5 as causing the heavens and the earth to be formed out of water and by water, but when people sinned, they brought the waters back in upon themselves, to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:6). Notice the imagery Peter uses of God pushing back the waters to create and bring form to the world, and how the waters bring the flood and destroy the world that God created. The cosmic warfare motif we saw in Genesis 1–8 is evident here in Peter’s writings as well.

Peter is clearly painting this contrast that we have already seen between the creative work of God in bringing order to the chaos in Genesis 1, and the exact opposite of this, when the waters came back upon the face of the earth and destroyed all that God had created. Through this contrasting imagery, Peter is showing that he understands the imagery and symbolism of the flood event, and that God was not causing or sending the flood, but was doing everything He could to rescue and deliver people from it. The flood came as a result of sin and rebellion, of nature out of control, or the destroyer seeking to destroy, of sin cannibalizing itself, and of people separating themselves from the protective hand of God.

Peter’s ultimate point is made in 2 Peter 3:9: God does not want anyone to perish, but wants everyone to come to repentance. God does everything possible to withhold the flood waters, to stop the destruction, and to restrict calamity. God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone, not even the death of the wicked. He does not want the wicked to die, but wants them to repent and so He does everything He can to give people ample opportunity to repent.

But there comes a day when their sin is so great and their rebellion has gone on for so long, that the cannibalistic nature of their sin and the destroying power their rebellion carries them out of the protective hand of God, and He has no choice but to let destruction come. He gives them over to their sin.

Notice one last thing about the 2 Peter 2 passage. Peter ends his letter by talking about the second “flood” that will come upon the earth, but this time it will not be a flood of water, but a flood of fire (2 Peter 3:10, 12). The imagery of the world being consumed with fire is identical to the image used by Jesus in Matthew 24 which we considered in a previous post, and so nothing else needs to be said about it here.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

These are the sorts of questions we discuss and (try to) answer in my online discipleship group. Members of the group can also take ALL of my online courses (Valued at over $1000) at no charge. Learn more here: Join the RedeemingGod.com Discipleship Group I can't wait to hear what you have to say, and how we can help you better understand God and learn to live like Him in this world!

How to Proclaim the Gospel to Your Neighbors

By Jeremy Myers

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In this post, Sam Riviera continues his series of posts on how to be the church in your community. He asks what it looks like to proclaim the Gospel to your neighbors.

Should the church proclaim the Gospel to the community? Does the church need to teach the Bible and even correct theology to the community? Are sermons and Bible studies the best way to do these things? Are they the only ways to proclaim the gospel?

We have discovered that there are other ways to proclaim the gospel to your neighbors.

How we Proclaim the Gospel

For example, today I spent the afternoon at my neighbor’s house, trimming, mowing grass, sweeping, watering and other similar chores. This neighbor has been out of town for several months, spending time with his family after the death of his wife.

Almost everyone on his block knows that my wife and I have been taking care of his house and yard while he is gone, and that we spent time with both of them on a regular basis after her cancer returned. Many of them wave as they pass us while we’re working, and some stop to talk.

Today at least a dozen neighbors drove or walked past as I worked. Several stopped to talk. I greeted them, and they asked me questions. They asked when our mutual friend is returning and how he is doing. They thanked me for helping him and keeping the house looking nice.

They asked about the Resurrection Mass for his wife after her death. They asked about the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism. We discussed communion and why Catholics are so careful with the bread and wine. (I explained that some of them believe it is the body and blood of Jesus.) They asked what I think the significance of communion is. (I answered that it reminds me that God became human, walked among us and loved us so much that He died for us on the cross.)

They asked about prayer, and prayers ascending to God. They asked about why God lets bad things happen to good people like our friend. They told me that when our friends needed someone, they believe God sent us to be there for them and wondered if God will do that for others. I discussed and commented on all of these issues, issues that the neighbors wanted to discuss. Some of these people are not followers of Jesus. One told me she is a Buddhist. Then she asked more questions about Jesus and Christianity.

The pastor of the last institutional church we attended told me he doubted that more than two or three people remember much of anything from his sermons one week later. On the other hand, these neighbors are watching and listening to our “sermons” of love, are remembering and are asking questions.

There are Many Ways to Proclaim the Gospel

There are many ways to proclaim the Gospel. The good news can be taught in many forms. Sermons can be shown as well as preached.

Somewhat accidentally we have discovered that people watch, listen to, remember and want to discuss “sermons” of love, “sermons” that indeed proclaim the Gospel.

We’ve also discovered that when they’re asking us questions, they’re interested in listening to the answers. Even people of other religions don’t flinch in the slightest when I say “communion reminds me that God became human as Jesus, walked among us, and died for us on a cross” and that “we are followers of Jesus.”

Do you have examples to share of sermons of love you have “preached” or have seen or heard “preached”? Can you think of ways to proclaim the Gospel using something other than just words?

Be the Church in Your Community

Want to be the church in your community but don't know? Here are some posts which not only explain what it means to be the church in your community, but also gives concrete, practical examples of what it looks like and how to be the church whatever you do and wherever you go. Remember, you ARE the church, and wherever you go, Jesus goes with you!

If you have questions about how to be the church in your community, please let us know in the comment sections below, and we will try to write a post which answers your question.

Christian Elitism

By Jeremy Myers

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Thanks goes to Eric Carpenter.

Tithing $50,000,000,000

By Jeremy Myers

25 Comments

There are about 10 million tithing Christians in America who give an estimated $50,000,000,000 annually to their churches and other charitable causes. That’s $50 billion!

Arthur Sido at The Voice of One Crying Out in Suburbia alerted me to this study, which was originally reported on Christianity Today, and he asks how churches spend this money. He says this:

This gets back to the broader of issue of our love and indeed worship of money in the church, an idolatry that is a near perfect reflection of the broader American cultural obsession with money. I absolutely affirm that we have a serious problem with how money and the church relate but I don’t think it is the same problem we hear about so often. We don’t so much have a giving problem in the church, what we really have is a spending problem. Where is our spending as the church focused? Is it outward or inward and which is more Biblical?

The New Testament church was outward focusing in….

Caring for the needy, such as widows among the church.

Concerned for the welfare of Christians in other locations that were suffering.

Supporting the evangelistic work of apostles/missionaries/evangelists who were traveling and preaching the Gospel.

The New Testament church was not concerned with…

Mortgages, interest payments, building projects, utilities.

Salaries for religious employees.

Material and curriculum for Sunday school.

Supporting the hierarchy of religious organizations like denominations and seminaries.

That is right on target! (Go read the rest of the article here: Are We Outward Focused or Inward Focused? Follow The Checkbook To Find Out)

Tithing and Money

I have written similar ideas before about how the church spends money it receives from tithing, and what could be done with this money instead (e.g., How the Church Can Solve the World Water Crisis, Liquidating our Property, and Money, Missions, and Ministry.

What if the churches around the country took JUST ONE TENTH of the tithing money they bring in in tithes every year, and put it toward rescuing young girls caught in human trafficking? If we tithed on our tithing income, we could give $5 billion every single year to some cause. What sorts of causes?

Though there are thousand things we could do with this tithing money, just take one example that has been heavy on my heart in recent years… rescuing girls from human trafficking.

A rescue center was recently started in Seattle called “The Genesis Project.” (It is featured in the movie, Rape for Profit.) As far as I can tell from their financial statements, they started the project and funded it for well under $1 million (2011 Tax Return, 2012 Balance Sheet). To date, they have rescued 87 human trafficking victims.

So imagine with me…. if churches around the country decided to use just 10% of the money they bring in to help start and run other centers like The Genesis Project, we could start 5000 of these centers…. in just one year!

There are only about 600 cities with populations of over 50,000 people, which means we could put one center in every single city with a population of over 50,000, and still have 4,400 centers that could be started in cities with larger populations.

This is just one example. Obviously, there are large number of worldwide needs that could be addressed. World hunger. Water needs. Health and humanitarian disasters. Schools. Orphanages.

Churches often look at these worldwide problems and say, “It’s too large!” But then we go spend billions of dollars on buildings, parking lots, and soundboards.

I am convinced that most of the world’s problems could be solved if we in the church just spent our tithing money in different ways.

Imagine what the church could do with $50 billion if we decided that nicer buildings, better parking lots, and newer soundboard were not a priority? If Jesus had $50 billion every year, how would He spend it?

The Flood According to Jesus (Matthew 24)

By Jeremy Myers

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In Matthew 24:36-44, Jesus provides insight into the causes and events of the flood.

Matthew 24:36-44 is not about the Rapture

This is a popular proof text for teaching on the rapture of the church. Note, however, that if this passage is about the rapture of the church, the previous context indicates that it is “after the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29) that Jesus “will gather together His elect” (Matthew 24:31). So this would seem to argue against the “pre-Tribulation” view of the rapture.

Furthermore, in the specific context of Matthew 24:36-44, Jesus equates those who are “taken” in this future event with the people who were taken away by the waters of the flood (Matthew 24:39). If this passage is truly about the rapture of the church, it seems strange for Jesus to equate the rescue of the church with the destruction of the people at the time of the flood.

So it seems more likely that Jesus is not describing the rapture at all, but some other future event. What future event?

Matthew 24:36-44 and Revelation 19–20.

The imagery Jesus uses in Matthew 24:36-44 fits best with similar imagery used by the Apostle John in Revelation 19–20. In these chapters, John describes a Satanically-inspired rebellion which results in fire destroying those who side with Satan (Rev 20:9). Both Jesus and John describe the Son of Man coming from heaven on the clouds to conquer (Matthew 24:30; Rev 19:11-16), carrion birds gathering to feast on the carcasses (Matt 24:28; Rev 19:17-18), and the passing away of heaven and earth (Matthew 24:35; Rev 21:1).

We will look at much of this imagery in a later post when we consider the violence in the book of Revelation, but the imagery is only brought up here to show that when Jesus talks about the flood in Matthew 24, He likens it to a similar form of world-wide judgment that falls upon the earth at the end of days.

The Attitude of People at the time of the Flood

Why does this second judgment come? Curiously, here in Matthew 24, Jesus does not mention any sort of sinfulness. Jesus says that at the time of the flood, “they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” (Matthew 24:38).

There is nothing wrong with these things, as Jesus Himself ate and drank during His ministry. At one point, He was even accused of being a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11:19). And while He did not get married, He attended weddings (cf. John 2:1-12) and did not forbid His followers from getting married.

So Jesus is not describing sin in Matthew 24:38, but is rather revealing an attitude or behavior that characterized the people at the time of the flood and which will also characterize the people He is describing in Matthew 24:36-44.

What is this attitude? What is the failure? It is living life as if nothing else matters beyond this life. It is when people fill their lives with some of the blessings of life—such as eating, drinking, and marrying—so that they ignore the signs of the times in which they live and the testimony from God about what is coming unless they all heeded the warnings and followed the ways of God (Matthew 24:32-33).

At the time of the flood, Noah served as “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet 2:5) who proclaimed and warned the people of the flood that was coming. But they were too busy with eating, drinking, and getting married to pay any attention or to make any changes in their lives. As a result, they were caught unprepared when the flood waters came and took them all away. So shall it be at the end of days when the Son of Man comes.

The Flood of Fire

In Matthew 24, Jesus does not describe exactly how the people will be taken away, but the parallel passage in Revelation 20:9 indicates that fire will come down from God out of heaven (cf. also 2 Pet 3:7).

Here again, however, we must be careful not to read something into the text that is not there. The imagery of “fire” in the Bible is widely misunderstood by most Christians.

It is commonly thought that whenever the Bible mentions “fire” it refers to the “hellfire” or the fire of wrath and judgment. Yet how can it be that the God revealed in Jesus Christ, who refused to rain down fire on the Samaritans and condemned such an idea when it was suggested (cf. Luke 9:54-56), would then turn around and rain down fire on those who reject Him at His second coming? It seems highly unlikely.

I will suggest another way of reading Revelation in a later post which allows Revelation to highlight and emphasize the love and grace of Jesus Christ, rather than portraying Him as a vengeful deity who comes to earth to bathe in the blood of His enemies, but suffice it to say for now that the fire which comes down out of heaven in Revelation 20:9 is related to the image of the flames of fire that burn within the eyes of Jesus (Rev 19:12), and the sharp sword which comes out of His mouth with which He strikes the nations (Rev 19:15; cf. Rev 1:14, 16).

The sword that comes out of the mouth of Jesus and His eyes of flame are not instruments of death. God is not in the business of incinerating His foes.

Instead, the sword that proceeds from the mouth of Jesus most naturally represents the Word of God, by which He creates, restores, and redeems the world. The eyes of flame represent the glory and purity of God, whose eyes burn with love and passion for all people. Though the Lord is a consuming fire, it is not that He burns with rage toward sinners, but that, as discussed above, the all-consuming love and holiness of God burns away anything that draws near which is not filled with the righteousness of God.

Scripture is clear that the fire which brings healing and restoration to the righteous people of God is the same fire that brings destruction and devastation to those who have set their ways against God (cf. Isa 33:10-16; Mal 3:2-3; 4:1-2; 1 Cor 3:12-15).

The fire of God is like the fire of the sun. Just as all the oceans of the world would do no more to quench the fires of the sun any more than would a single drop of water, so also, all the sins of all the people of all the world can do no more to quench the inferno of God’s holiness than would a single unkind thought from one person. Sin cannot taint God, for all sin is incinerated by the fire of God’s love, holiness, righteousness, and glory.

When God comes to finally and ultimately bring healing and restoration to the earth, everything that is in opposition to God is consumed by His purifying fire. The refining fire brings out the gold, jewels, and precious stones so that the wood, hay, and stubble are no more. What this means for the people who are in stubborn rebellion against God will be considered in later posts as well when we look at the topic of hell.

Jesus Brings Redemption and Renewal

The point here is that when Jesus returns to set right all wrongs, to heal all hurts, and to restore all that is crooked, He comes with healing, love, and righteousness, calling all people to Himself to be redeemed and renewed.

This call for deliverance is exactly what God did for the people who lived in the days of Noah. But they would not heed the warnings, and when the flood came they were carried away by the waters.

So also, when the Son of Man comes, if people will not heed the warnings, rather than being rescued by God’s purifying fire, they too will be carried away.

In Matthew 24, Jesus is not saying that when He comes again, He will be coming to obliterate and incinerate people. Just as God wanted to rescue as many as possible from the waters of the flood, so also, God wants to rescue as many as possible from the fire that will come upon the earth.

This is one reason He is delaying His coming and why He asks preachers of righteousness like Noah to go out and spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all who will hear and believe.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

How to Be the Church In Your Community

By Jeremy Myers

26 Comments

It is popular today for people to say, “Don’t go to church; BE the church.” Everybody nods their heads at this, but few actually know what it means or how to truly “be the church.” With this post, Sam Riviera is starting a series of posts on how to be the church in your community. If you have ever wondered how to be the church in your community, you don’t want to miss a post. I will try to put one up each Monday for the next several weeks.

When most people in our culture think of church, what comes to mind?

Most people think of church as a location with buildings and property, or as an organization. When asked about our relationship with “church”, people usually ask us “Where do you go to church?”, “What church do you belong to?” or “Where is your church”?

While that understanding of church is common, my wife and I think of church as “those people who follow Jesus.” For some, that may include properties, buildings, programs, staff, and all the other accouterments that go with the organizational, institutional understanding of church. For some of us, it does not.

While we find it important to gather with other believers to share the common hope we have in Jesus, we do not limit that to the organizational, institutional scenario. We try to “be the church” in the community – every single day.

What Does It Look Like To “Be The Church In The Community”?

As we proceed through this series, I will give various examples of what this looks like for us and encourage you to share examples of what this looks like for you in your community. None of these examples are intended to be a model for you to follow. Instead, they are only instances that will not only help us to dream of what it looks like to be the church in our communities, but also help us to live out our calling to follow Jesus in our communities.

A Day in the Life of Being the Church

What does a typical day of “being the church in the community” look like for us? I doubt that there is such a thing for us as a typical day, but I will describe what it looked like for us today.

After spending the morning on jury duty, I came home and changed to go running. First, however, I watered plants and pulled weeds for a neighbor who is out of town. Then I talked with another neighbor whose wife recently left him. I invited him to our upcoming block party.

After running, I talked to another neighbor about some details for the upcoming block party that she is helping us organize, then greeted another neighbor, a widow who told me her phones had not worked for two days and she could not call anyone because she had also lost her cell phone. A couple of hours later, we had determined that there was a problem with her phone system, and had found her cell phone so she could report the problem with her landline to her landline provider.

After my wife came home from work we walked through our neighborhood before leaving for our evening class. We greeted several neighbors, then drove to class. After class, we discovered a backpack in the parking lot next to our car. We opened it (No, it didn’t explode) and found a driver’s license, credit card and other personal items for a person vacationing from out of the area. With the help of a friend who has a smart phone app that found a phone number for the address on the driver’s license, we reached the owner of the backpack and arranged for her to pick up her backpack.

It Takes Nothing Big to Be the Church.

As you can see, nothing about our day would be material for a book or a mini series. It would never be the sermon illustration for a mega-church sermon. Yet we see days like this as a somewhat typical day of being the church in the community.

To be the church, all we do is keep our eyes and ears open to the people around us, and try to show them love in whatever way we can.

In future posts we will look at various other ways we have sought to be the church in the community, will give examples of other people we know who are being the church in their communities, and will encourage you to give examples from your experience.

Be the Church in Your Community

If you have questions about how to be the church in your community, please let us know in the comment sections below, and we will try to write a post which answers your question.

Rape for Profit

By Jeremy Myers

6 Comments

Did you know that men all over our country are paying money to rape young girls?

Worse yet, if these men get caught, they won’t go away to prison. They might get a slap on the wrist and spend a night in jail. The young girl will probably get arrested as well.

You haven’t heard about this? It sounds bizarre?

That’s because you know about it under a different name: prostitution. Or as we like to call it here in the United States: “Hiring an escort.” Essentially, prostitution is rape for profit.

Most people seem to think that prostitution is not so bad because the girls are willing. But the tragic truth is that the vast majority of them are not willing.

These young girls are out on the streets because they are in bondage and in chains. They are there against their will. They are being coerced, forced, and threatened. Sometimes, a guy they thought was their boyfriend got them hooked on drugs so that they have to go “turn tricks” for him just to get more drugs.

No matter what, prostitution is a form of rape. But since people are selling these girls, it is rape for profit. It is allowing other men to rape girls in exchange for money.

Some people seem to think the girls want to do these things, but no girl wants to be a prostitute. (See some others posts on the topic of human trafficking here.)

My wife and I have been trying to champion the needs of these poor girls for several years now, and have been trying to raise awareness of their plight in our own small ways, but we watched a documentary last week week which reiterated our need to stand up and raise the call once again.

Rape for Profit

The movie is called Rape for Profit Here is a preview:

If you are unaware about this dire issue in our own country (and around the world), I strongly recommend you watch this movie. You can watch it on iTunes here: Rape for Profit.

The stories you hear and the things you hear in this documentary will break your heart for these poor young girls who are caught into the darkest and most evil web on earth. They truly are trapped in hell.

I strongly encourage you to watch the movie.

Also, think about getting involved with some of the organizations and ministries around the country that are seeking to help rescue these young girls and show them how precious and valuable they truly are. Two groups we support are Children’s Hope Chest in Colorado Springs, and The International Justice Mission in Washington D.C. I see that Jamie (the very worst missionary) recommends a few resources as well.

And hey! As I was just visiting the website of the International Justice Mission to get the link above, I noticed that if you donate to them in the month of September (ONLY THREE DAYS LEFT), your donation gets doubled!

How aware are you of this great problem in our country (and around the world)? How did you hear about it, and what do you think can be done about it? Let us know in the comment section.

To learn more about Human Trafficking and sex slavery, check out some of these posts:

Human Trafficking Posts

The Flood According to Isaiah 54:7-9

By Jeremy Myers

5 Comments

One Old Testament passages which sheds light on what happened at the flood is Isaiah 54:7-9. Though not much is said in this text to explain the cause or reasons for the flood, the text does reveal God’s activity during the flood.

Lots of people believe that God was the one who sent the flood to kill all the people on earth, but Isaiah 54 suggests otherwise.

Isaiah 54 and the Flood

In Isaiah 54, Israel is feeling as if they have been abandoned and scorned by God. God likens them to a woman who has borne no children, and is facing the shame and disgrace of being barren (Isaiah 54:1, 4).

God tells them to sing for joy, to forget their shame, and to remember their reproach no more (Isaiah 54:4). Why? Because God Himself is Israel’s husband (Isaiah 54:5). And since He is God the whole world, He will give more children to Israel than she ever could have had in any other way (Isaiah 54:1-3).

God does admit that his wrath came upon Israel for a while, and that for a mere moment He turned away from Israel (Isaiah 54:6-7). But God then promises that with great mercy and everlasting kindness, He will gather them, protect them, provide for them, love them, and take care of them (Isaiah 54:7-8, 11-15).

God’s wrath is not God’s anger at sin, but is rather the natural consequence of using God’s good gifts in a wrong way. God gave us the ability to love and make free choices, but when we abuse love, and use our freedom to make bad choices, we experience the natural consequences of these decisions. Future posts on the wrath of God explains this concept in more detail and looks at several key biblical texts.

Why the Flood Came Upon the Earth (Isaiah 54:16)

For now, notice something quite surprising in this text. In Isaiah 54:16, God explains why the flood came upon the earth. Using the imagery of “the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire” God says, “I have created the spoiler to destroy” (Isaiah 54:16).

The Hebrew word translated as “spoiler” is the Hiphil participle from shachat. It could also be translated as “the destroyer” (cf. NAS, NIV, NET). More interestingly still, the Hiphil participle of shachat is also used in Genesis 6:13 and 17 in reference to the destruction that came upon the earth. By using such imagery, God explains why the flood came upon the earth: it came because the destroyer destroys. This is the fourth principle of the Chaos Theory.

But what does it mean when the text say that God created the destroyer to destroy? Is not the destroyer opposed to all that is good and Godly? Yes! God is not a destroyer, but a Creator. Nor does God “send” the destroyer to destroy. The destroyer destroys because he is a destroyer. And since everything that exists has it origin in God, it can be said that God created the destroyer. This idea is troubling to some, but note carefully how God explains this.

How the Destroyer Came to Be

Before God mentions that He created the destroyer, God says that He created the blacksmith (Isaiah 54:16a). The blacksmith blows on the coals and brings forth the instruments for his work. Though God created the blacksmith, it is the blacksmith who does his work and brings forth the tools and instruments from his forge.

While many tools that come off a blacksmith forge are used for good purposes, some blacksmiths create tools and instruments that can be used for evil. Sometimes, an instrument or tool which the blacksmith created for good could be used to cause great harm to others. Take a knife, for instance. If a blacksmith makes a knife to cut vegetables, but someone else uses it to kill humans, it is not the knife’s fault, the blacksmith’s fault for making the knife, or even God’s fault for making the blacksmith.

This is how to understand the statement by God in Isaiah 54:16b that He created the destroyer. It is not that God was out for bloody revenge, or because God wanted someone else to do His dirty work for Him. The destroyer is not God’s super-secret hit man who does what needs to be done so God can keep His hands clean.

No, Scripture is clear. When God creates, He only creates good things for good purposes. There is no evil intent in the heart of God. The destroyer was not created to be evil, or to do bad things. In fact, it might be best to realize that the destroyer was never created at all as “the destroyer.” Just as God did not create humanity sinful, but we became sinful through our rebellion, so also the destroyer became destructive, also as a result of rebellion.

Death, decay, and destruction are the natural consequence of disobeying God and going against His will. The only way that God can be said to have created the destroyer is by saying that He created a being with genuine free will, and in so doing, restricted Himself from intervening when that free being chose to depart from God’s perfect will.

God did not make or create death and destruction, but did allow for their possibility when He created life and gave freedom to His creation.

It is the same with human beings. When God created humanity with the freedom to go against His will, this freedom necessitated the possibility that history would go bad if we went against His will, which is exactly what happened in Genesis 3, and the negative consequences of this decision are felt in Genesis 4 when Cain murders his brother, in Genesis 5, where the phrase “and he died” is repeated over and over and over, and then in Genesis 6 when people become so evil that the destruction of all mankind becomes inevitable and God steps in to save and rescue Noah and his family.

This brings us back to what God says about the flood in Isaiah 54. Just as when Israel became evil and departed from God, He sought to gather them to Himself and show mercy to them (Isaiah 54:7-8), so also this is what God says He did in the flood. The flood came upon the earth, but God worked to rescue people from it, and when it was over, He promised that such a thing would never happened again (Isaiah 54:9).

In the end, Isaiah 54 shows us once again that behind the terrible death and destruction of the flood, there is a beautiful theme of God’s love, grace, and mercy as He seeks to rescue and deliver people from the storms of life. God promises that even if the mountains crumble and the hills disappear, God will lever depart, and His covenant of peace will never be removed (Isaiah 54:10).

God Does Not Forsake His People

Isaiah 54:9-10 is similar to what God said elsewhere: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5). Though Israel may leave and reject God, God will not leave or reject them. In fact, though it appears from various events in her history that He has abandoned them, it is they who abandoned Him, and though He walked with them, calling them back, pleading with them to return to His righteous ways, they walked straight into the maws of destruction.

In those catastrophic events brought upon them by the destroyer when they left the protective hand of God, it seemed to them that God was angry with them, that God had left them. But quite to the contrary, God was there all along, suffering alongside them, helping them bear up under the crushing burden of pain and loss, and waiting with them until the heavy cost of justice had been poured out by the destroyer. Then God led them forth, back into righteousness and life, restoring unto them light, liberty, freedom, and joy.

The promise of God in Isaiah 54 is that even if Israel abandons Him, He will not abandon her. Even if destruction comes, He will try to rescue as many people as He can from this destruction, and bring them back from it as quickly as possible, just as He did in the days of Noah. According to what God says in Isaiah 54 about the flood, He did not bring the waters of destruction; the destroyer brought them. Instead of bringing death and destruction upon the world in the flood, God was involved in three other activities.

God Rescues, Redeems, and Delivers

The first thing God did in the flood was call people back to Himself so that they might be delivered. He did this through the preaching of Noah.

The second thing God did was that when the flood waters came upon the earth, He sought to rescue, redeem, and deliver as many people from the flood as He would come. In the end, only eight were saved.

Finally, when the destruction was over, He sought to bring light, hope, healing, and restoration back to the earth as quickly as possible. He did this by sending the wind to push back the waters, and then by blessing Noah and his family in their efforts to be fruitful and multiply upon the face of the earth.

What then does God say about the flood through the prophet Isaiah? That although He created the mechanism by which the flood came (Isaiah 54:16b), His commitment before, during, and after the flood was to never depart from His children, even though they may try to depart from Him (Isaiah 54:8-10).

When the text says that God had forsaken his people, and hid His face from them (Isaiah 54:7-8), this does not mean that He had abandoned them, but that the people had strayed so far from God that when destruction came at the hand of the destroyer and as a consequence for their sin, it seemed to the people that God was absent, that He was punishing them, or that He was no longer involved in their lives.

If there is one thing we learn from Isaiah 54 about the flood, it is that although it appears as if God sent the flood as punishment, it actually came as a result of humanities departure from the protective hand of God, and because the destroyer had set out to bring destruction upon the people of the earth as the just consequence for their great sin.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

The Flood According to Job 22:15-18

By Jeremy Myers

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I am finally returning to my series on the violence of God in Scripture. We left off in the middle of a discussion about the violence of the flood. This post is going to look at the account of the flood in Job 22:15-18. If you need a refresher on some of what we have looked at previously regarding the flood and the violence of God in Scripture, feel free to brows through some of the articles listed at the bottom of this post.

There are biblical passages outside of Genesis 6–8 that refer to the flood. One of the earliest of these is Job 22:15-18. In fact, since many scholars believe that the events described in the book of Job occurred long before the author of Genesis was alive [1], what the book of Job records about the flood may well be the earliest description of what happened in that cataclysmic event. [2]

Nevertheless, some may take exception with Job 22:15-18 as saying much of anything reliable about the flood. Why? Because Job is not the speaker in Job 22:15-18. Instead, Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends, is speaking.

However, even though Eliphaz is the one speaking, this does not mean we should automatically discredit everything he says. We will consider the book of Job in more detail later in posts and see that Job is in basic agreement with most of what his friend Eliphaz says. So although Eliphaz was wrong about the reasons for Job’s suffering, this does not mean he was wrong about everything he said. Most of what Eliphaz and Job’s other friends said is true in other circumstances; their fault was that what they were saying was not true in Job’s situation.

Job 22:15-18 and the Flood

So notice what it is that Eliphaz says about the flood in Job 22:15-18:

Will you keep to the old path that the wicked have trod?
They were carried off before their time, their foundations washed away by a flood.
They said to God, “Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do to us?”
Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things… (Job 22:15-18a, NIV) [3]

According to Eliphaz, God’s role in the flood was to give good things to the people who lived prior to the flood (Job 22:18a), but in response, all they wanted was for God to leave them alone. They told God to depart from them!

How they told God to leave them alone is not made clear in Job 22. Maybe it was simply through their persistence in committing great evil. Maybe they said this in response to the preaching of Noah (2 Pet 2:5). Regardless of how it happened, the explanation of Eliphaz for why the flood came upon the earth is that sinful humanity pushed God away.

Eliphaz is stating the sixth principle of the Chaos Theory: that God departs from us when we depart from His protective hand. God never actually departs from us, but He has given to mankind such a high degree of autonomy and freedom, that if we choose to continue down a path of death and destruction, He will let us go, even though it pains Him greatly, and even though He does everything possible to warn us about where such paths lead.

What we see in this earliest explanation of the flood account, is that God did nothing but woo people to Himself by filling their houses with good things (Job 22:18a).

But the people thought they knew better than God, and wanted to live their own way, despite the fact that He poured out His love and care upon them, and even sent righteous Noah to warn them about the flood that was coming. Yet they did not listen, and told God to just leave them alone.

So when the destruction of the flood waters came upon the earth, God had no choice but to do what they had requested, and leave the people alone. When “alienation becomes incurable, God does, in fact, depart.” [4]

[1] Evidence for an early date of the events of Job is seen in several ways. First, Job raised two complete families and died 140 years after his testing (Job 42:16). The LXX says that he died at age 248. This puts him in the age range of Peleg (Gen 10:25), who some think might have been Job’s uncle (if Job is the Jobab of Gen 10:29). Second, Job’s wealth is listed as measured in livestock and possessions, not money, which is further evidence for an extremely early date of the events in Job. Finally, the events recorded in Job were probably events he was familiar with. This includes the post-Flood ice age (38:29-30), cave men (24:4-10; 30:1-8), and the violent aftermath of the Flood which includes earthquakes, volcanoes, windstorms, and the raiding parties which decimated his first family.

[2] Though the events of the book of Job may have occurred before Moses lived, they were probably not written down in their present form until after Moses lived, and obviously, some of the events described in Genesis occurred long before Job lived. Confused yet? The order of events is something along these lines: (1) Creation. (2) The Flood. (3) Job Lived. (4) The story of Job was passed down orally. (5) Moses lived. (6) Moses composed the Pentateuch (No, I do not hold to the JEDP documentary hypothesis), which includes Genesis 6–8. (7) The story of Job was recorded in written form, probably during the reign of King Solomon.

[3] Not surprisingly, there are a few translation problems with Job 22:17-18. The two main issues are where the quotation ends and whether the last words of Job 22:17 should read “to us” or “to them.” See the various translations for how different scholars handle this text. In my opinion, the two issues are connected. If one goes with the textual variant which ends Job 22:17 with the words “to us” (as with the NIV above) then the quote of the people who lived at the time of the flood concludes at the end of Job 22:17. But if one goes with the textual variant which ends Job 22: 17 with the words “to them,” then the quote mark should end half way through Job 22:17 where the people before the flood tell God to “Depart from us” or “Leave us alone.” The last half of Job 22:17 would then be Eliphaz’s aside about what they said. If they tell God to leave them alone, what can the Almighty do? Regardless of how one translates the text, these issues do not affect in any way the main point I am arguing here, that the people at the time of the flood told God to depart from them, to leave them alone. All translations agree on this point.

[4] Campbell, Light through the Darkness, 99.

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Isaiah 54 and the Flood

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Job 22:15-18 and the Flood

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