Intelligible Edification

One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.  Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying. (1 Corinthians 14:4-5 NASB)

One of the things missing in the modern debate over gifts of the Holy Spirit and their use in worship is...balance.  It seems that somehow the camps became mostly divided into those who believe that all gifts are for today, and those who believe they are not.  While I concede they both have their reasons, I believe they both also have some dire problems with how they handle Scripture.

First off, for some reason, the group which holds to modern expression of all spiritual gifts seems to focus on tongues as the primary gift.  It's as if tongues the 'gateway' gift you have to have before you would be able to have any of the others.  If you don't speak in tongues, they believe you haven't received the 'second blessing'.  Frankly I can't stand such talk.  I have no patience with this view in the least.  It finds any sliver of Scripture without context to support a view diametrically opposed to Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

Second, the group believing the gifts have ceased seem to use 1 Corinthians 12-14, but get radically different meaning from it that what any rational person reading it would derive.  It's truly odd.  Honestly, I haven't studied their rationale, and I admit I need to so I can better understand their particular irrationality.  My guess is that their entire view is a reaction against the ridiculousness in worship behavior from so many modern practitioners of gifts.

So while I hold to neither group, I consider myself a non-ceasationist; I believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit haven't ceased today.  Although I believe the enemy, Satan, has hijacked their expression in may modern churches.  From what I have seen, the expression of so-called gifts looks nothing like the intent of Paul in 1 Corinthians, and in fact is the polar opposite of what he taught.

Enough about me and modern stupidity, what about Paul.  In order to reach chapter 14, Paul has laid down the basic element of a unified church with a diversity of gifts by the design of God; and then has gone to great lengths to describe the supremacy of love over against all spiritual gifts.  Now he looks at the purpose and practice of gifts within the context of worship.  And on that note, he's not looking at all gifts, but only a few, verbal/audible gifts.

He point in the first half of the chapter is on intelligibility and the purpose of edifying the church.  The word edifying is drawn from building construction terms.  It is essentially a word meaning to build a house or other building.  So Paul's point is that expressions of gifts should have as their purpose the 'building' of the congregation.  His question to the church in Corinth is how can people in the congregation can be 'built upon' if they can't understand what is being said?

In the second half of the chapter Paul focuses on practice.  His description looks like nothing I've ever experienced.  But I sure want to...I think.  It's so radically different, I'm pretty sure I'd be very uncomfortable.  The description of practice is fraught with difficulties, and one particular controversial piece that truly does not seem to fit (that will be another entry all on its own).

I think that for my particular application of the overall view of chapter 14, the point has to be that my experience in worship should also be for the 'building' of the church/congregation.  I think that in our modern American culture, it's easy to make worship about me, and my experience.  I know it's easy to point out others and how they don't seem to 'get into it' or something.  But I don't believe I can use that for an excuse to be about my own experience.  If I'm not going to let them keep me from experiencing God in worship just because they're not 'into it', then the result is a bunch of independent people experiencing worship and no 'unity' is achieved or experienced. 

So what would 'unity in worship' look like?  Well, I don't know.  The whole layout is more supportive of independence than unity.  It's not easy to see each other, there's little or no acceptable or comfortable participation, and we arrange the entire room to focus on a stage, and therefore, the people on it.  We have an 'audience' experience, and participation from the audience seems disruptive.  This is why Paul's description in chapter 14:27-33 is so foreign to me.  All I've ever known is the arrangement I've just described.  So, my challenge is to somehow achieve or foster an experience of unity in worship within a context favoring independence.  I will need to think about this...

Frightening Things About A Holy God

Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds. (1 Samuel 21:7 NASB)

 In almost every translation I have, Doeg is described as 'detained before the Lord'.  This is one of the few verses that I've run into where something like this is so commonly translated in so many versions.  The word in Hebrew can looked up in a Strong's Concordance as H6113 or here at the Blue Letter Bible website (one of my favorite online resources). 

The word is most often used for when God 'shuts' the windows of heaven during a drought, or shuts the wombs of women so they don't bear children, and so on.  The key here is that the word is not ordinarily used for what people do (unless to point out what they 'cannot do'), but rather for what God does.  If you read the rest of this story (into chapter 22), consider that, according to the writer, God caused Doeg to be present knowing he would betray and destroy the priests of Nob and their entire city.

Doeg's presence precipitates one of the darkest days of Israel.  King Saul has the entire city, men, women, children, infants, and animals wiped out.  In his paranoia he goes over the top in his punishment of priests; priests who weren't even rebellious or in defiance before him.  His servants wouldn't carry out his order to slay the priests, only this Doeg character.  So, why would a loving, holy omniscient God restrain such a character in Nob to witness David getting help from them?

First off, I don't really know.  I do have a theory though (go figure).  Not often in these places are we given that many clues, but here I think I can find a possible answer combined from two places.  The first is 1 Samuel 2:27-36; the prophecy against the house of Eli.  In it is this phrase:

'Behold, the days are coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your father's house so that there will not be an old man in your house.  You will see the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all the good that I do for Israel; and an old man will not be in your house forever.  Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will die in the prime of life. (1 Samuel 2:31-33 NASB)

So, in a sense, due to the sins of Eli and his sons, the house of Aaron (not Levi, but Eli within the house of Aaron) would be cut off both from the land and from serving before the altar.

The second clue I find in 1 Kings 2:26, 27 where Solomon dismisses Abiathar (the last remaining priest from Eli's line) from service:

Then to Abiathar the priest the king said, "Go to Anathoth to your own field, for you deserve to die; but I will not put you to death at this time, because you carried the ark of the Lord GOD before my father David, and because you were afflicted in everything with which my father was afflicted." So Solomon dismissed Abiathar from being priest to the LORD, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD, which He had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. (1 Kings 2:26-27 NASB)

What I surmise from these two passages is that the destruction of the priest of Nob was actually 'arranged' by God; which is very frightening to me.  What I mean by this is that the Loving King of Righteousness, in justice and judgment, restrained Doeg so that his presence would bring about a portion of His judgment against the priestly line of Eli.  At least, that's my theory.

And here's what I learn from this:  Not all my problems from other people are persecution for righteousness.  In fact, at least in my case, I would contend I suffer the consequences for my sin.  But beyond this, when my sin before my Master is great, these consequences can also be severe on my family; guilt-by-association or environment or something.  It's a reminder that my sin is not just about me, but about those around me. 

I hope therefore, that my repentance is also about others, not just me; that my heart broken before my Master will also positively affect others around me.  Truly, my sin, in addition to all the other reasons in my dark heart, is also selfish in that I afflict others without regard for their consequences.  So, I hope also my brokenness before my Master will be selfless, before my Master, and before others.  Strength to resist sin becomes something I exert for my Master, but also for those around me.  Once again, it's less about me.  Good grief, I really do need to just fade to the background, and be lost behind the view of my Master.

What Was Once Precious

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD before Eli. And word from the LORD was rare in those days, visions were infrequent. (1 Samuel 3:1 NASB)

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor had the word of the LORD yet been revealed to him. (1 Samuel 3:7 NASB)

And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, because the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD. (1 Samuel 3:21 NASB)

The word translated as "rare" in the first verse should have been translated as "precious" or "scarce"; something that conveyed the supply-and-demand relationship between how it was viewed and its frequency.  Much can be said of such a view of "a word from the LORD".   Instead, perhaps the abundance has had the opposite affect.  Yet not all the words are from my Master.

In Horton Hears a Who, his Who-ville on a puff flower was cast in a field of such flowers to hide it.  It is a common plot element in stories and movies to hide something among many examples of it.  I think it has become this way with a word from my Master.  So many voices cry out a word, claiming to be, sounding like, yet not a word from my Master.  The enemy tries to drown out the true word with a cacophony of vanity.

Perhaps the solution is to create a scarcity of words.  As my Master has said, "Cease striving and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10 NASB).  Silence, solitude, and quiet are such strangers in my life.  Maybe by cultivating those as companions the scarcity which will make a word from my Master precious and clear will be found once again.

Yet, isn't it favor from my Master that His words are so frequent, and easy to find?  Do I crave silence or perceived silence of my Master?  I want to hear better in the stillness, but I don't want my Master's words to be scarce.  Yet even without solitude and stillness, He speaks all around me.  I am truly blessed, covered in His favor that His word is so readily available to me.  The problem is me.  I don't treat the precious word of my Master with the value it deserves.

If I considered the word of my Master as precious, I would take every opportunity to hear it.  I would take every opportunity to read it, experience it, and wallow in it.  The word of my Master is shared at my church, but do I make that a priority?  The word of my Master is available to me through Scripture, yet do I spend my free time in it?  

I have opportunity every single day, multiple times throughout my day, to revel in a word from my Master.  I'm not unique, He's that prolific.  But how do I view His word?  Do I see it as the communication from the One forming stars, tracing quarks, creating at the outer reaches of the universe yet present with me? 

I like diversions in the form of games, reading, movies, and so on.  Why isn't seeking a word from my Master on that list?  Can you imagine if that's what believers did for recreation, studied Scripture for words from God?  Have I made my Master one option among many, or is He my only desirable option?  Have I finished my task, my chore, my entry in this blog, free to move on to the more enjoyable parts of my day?