Sin is “Barbs in Your Eyes, Thorns in Your Sides”
While sin still is “barbs in your eyes and thorns in your side,” and so may we seek to avoid it, above all, let’s be thankful to the Barb-Taker, the Thorn-Wearer. Because he’s the one who, in love, not only illustrated, but who embodied, the indescribable harm of our sin. As Paul says, “For he who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. – Numbers 33:55
The Oxford dictionary defines a barb as “a sharp projection near the end of an arrow, fishhook, or similar item.” While a thorn—well, you know what a thorn is.
Imagine a barb in your eye. A thorn in your side. Talk about painful. Debilitating. Something that hurts.
That’s the picture God uses to warn the pre-land Israelites what it’ll be like if they don’t drive out the nations. The nations will be “barbs in your eyes and thorns in your side.” Translation: They’ll really hurt you. As he says, “They shall trouble you.”
Yet the bigger question is, Why? Why will these nations hurt the Israelites?
Why They Will Be Barbs and Thorns
To answer, first, let’s think about what we would assume to be the reason. With the language of “barbs” and “thorns,” our initial answers would probably assume that the nations would physically harm the Israelites. For example, that the nations would attack the Israelites back—that’d make the most sense of barb- and thorn-like language, wouldn’t it?
Or, if we were to take a non-physical answer, perhaps we’d assume that the nations will make the Israelites less prosperous. That sure would be “troubling.”
Or finally, perhaps we’d put a more modern emphasis on it and make it something like the nations would make the Israelite’s feel less secure and important and loved.
All those would be harmful. But the Lord gives us the true reason. And it isn’t any of the above. Instead, it’s simple: The nations will be barbs and thorns because they’ll lead the Israelites to turn away from God and to sin. It’s that simple.
A Much Bigger Barb
Now, let’s be honest. We may hear that and think it sounds just religious. “Really? The intensely painful barb is just idolatry and sin?”
Yet the reason God calls uses such an extreme descriptions as “barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides” is precisely because God wanted them (and wants us) to know how incredibly hurtful idolatry and sin actually are.
They may think that leaving the nations and engaging in their worship wouldn’t be that big of a deal—for “We’re still God’s people!” as they often thought, or “God is gracious after all!” as we often think. But the reality is, the picture of idolatry and sin’s effects is eyes being pierced with barbs and sides being struck with thorns.
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Three Good Things About Difficult Bible Passages
Written by L.T. Greer |
Wednesday, October 6, 2021
It’s important to recognize that when it comes to the Bible, “difficult” almost always means, “contrary to the norms, presuppositions, or expectations of my own culture.” No single culture or people group finds all of the Bible’s teaching attractive—not even the cultures recorded in the Bible itself!I recently heard a pastor with decades of experience remark that the passage in Mark 7:24-30 is one of the most difficult in the Bible.[1] “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” Jesus said.[2] How does one defend this apparent ethnocentrism directed at a marginalized mother who is desperate to find a cure for her child?
Confronting difficult passages is, well, difficult. And the Mark 7 passage is but one of many that we or people in our congregations may struggle with. However, as I’ve taught and preached in my home church, I have discovered this very difficulty can help illuminate the Bible and our relationship to it.
When preaching to myself or to others, I often return to these three good things about difficult Bible passages:
We learn about veracity of the Bible.
In other words, a difficult passage about the life of Jesus (or of any other Biblical “hero”) reinforces the historicity of the documents, because this is exactly the kind of thing writers of hagiography or fiction would avoid.[3]
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Hurricane Hilary and Our Culture of Fear
The last thing Hurricane Hilary saw, however, was people desiring to come to church. People were more interested in saving their lives by gathering in long lines for food and water. It was all reminiscent of the same fear that governed the Covid-19 pandemic. In the 90s, David Wells expressed that one of the great problems for people today is that God’s hand rests ever so lightly upon us. The lighter providences we have received in the West, in the face of past atrocities and calamites, has not made us a strong people. We have lived such prosperous lives, having at our disposal the best of medicines and helps afforded to us, that we are convinced that there should be no pain in this life.
One day Henny-penny was picking up corn in the rickyard when—whack!—an acorn hit her upon the head. “Goodness gracious me!” said Henny-penny, “the sky’s a-going to fall; I must go and tell the King…
The past few days on the West coast have been eventful. We were told a massive hurricane was coming our way in Southern California that would wreak havoc on communities and bring in an historic “100-year storm”—an event of such catastrophic proportions that imminent death would follow. Governor Newsom declared a state of emergency, well before the event even occurred. Is that normal? Costco saw long lines of people scrambling to horde water and generators, three at a time. Shelves at the local grocery store were soon found empty as people stocked up on supplies to prepare for what seemed to be the event of a lifetime. We had no idea of what to expect.
Sunday morning, as I was preparing for church, my wife handed me a picture of the Doppler Radar and asked, “where is this storm, I don’t see it.” Other images showed a massive swirl covering the Westcoast, but something seemed off. I then searched the news reports that continued reassure me that the storm was coming and that we should be prepared for the worst.
Then…it happened. The rain fell ever so lightly, and the trees swayed about, knocking down a few leaves, and it was over. I saw pictures of people online walking the beach during what was supposed to be the heart of the storm. All this media hysteria, and this was the extent of the “100-year storm” from which I was told to batten down the hatches?
Some areas did receive significant flooding, and I’m sure there will be reports of damage in desert areas, and even some death, but the most devastating eyewitness testimony I could find was this: “It’s quite amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Sean Julian, 54, a resident of the town. “I’m seeing a lot more trees down. And there’s a big tree that just fell over there, and I probably shouldn’t be out here.” With that account, the article ended. A tree fell over and I probably shouldn’t be there?
Living on the Pacific Rim has always come with the threat of disasters, especially earthquakes and fires. But this is no less true wherever one lives in this world. After all, Jesus told us to expect these things (Matt. 24). While the news captures the worst of images, does this really compare with Atlantic hurricanes?
On the one hand I am thankful that the storm did not bring the destruction that we were assured would happen, but on the other, it’s always wise to assess the larger problem of what is driving our culture of fear.
God’s Light Hand Upon Us
One doesn’t have to look far to finds tracts and treatises of past theologians who wrote about God’s use of calamity and destruction to awaken people to repentance. I have in front of me David Clarkson’s, “God’s End in Sending Calamities.” People faced terrible things. Plague often wiped-out major populations and most people viewed these things as the scourge of God upon people for sin. Whether providence should always be read this way is for another article, but most pastors had no problem using catastrophic events to call people to Christ.
Daniel Defoe’s “Journal of the Plague Year” is a perfect example. Defoe describes the people coming to the churches in droves crying for prayer and help in the face of bubonic plague. They were certainly coming to the right place. The last thing Hurricane Hilary saw, however, was people desiring to come to church.
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Haste Isn’t A Shortcut
Apart from Christ our feet our cinder blocks when it comes to obedience, and jet packs when it comes to gratifying our lusts. So, God freely offers to you, through Christ, a new heart which transforms your entire moral framework. By faith then, your feet can plod away at faithfulness.
Millions of advertising dollars are spent every year on enticing you to embrace the vice of hastiness. What at first blush might look like a road to greater liberty, ease, and comfort, is instead a quicksand pathway which will quickly bog you down into the swamp of discontent, greed, and lust.
Porn is not a shortcut to sexual fulfillment, although that is what it disguises itself as. Sports betting is an alluring cheat code to generating fat stacks of cash, but the House always wins. Pinterest boards present a minimalist mirage of tidiness, but underpinning (pun intended) that minimalism is often an avoidance of diligence. Every other Silicon Valley start up is aimed at trying to part you from your money with the enticing promise of shortcutting hard work.
Proverbs, in particular, warns us of the sinister nature of haste. Hasty feet are described as sinful (Pr. 19:2). Hastiness in wealth building is unlikely to be paired with moral innocence (Pr. 28:20). Hasty speech is not just foolish, it makes you worse than a fool (Pr. 29:20).
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