We Are Not Home Yet
The eternally glorious Son of God was treated as a stranger among His own people (John 1:10–11). But He came to make us heirs of the world to come. He came to fulfill the hope of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. He entered that state of sojourning to secure redemption for His people. He identifies with the true sons of Abraham who also pass through this world as sojourners.
After a decade of church planting and pastoring in the beautiful Southern coastal city of Savannah, Ga., my family and I moved on to a new place to begin a new ministry and a new season of life. As our time in Savannah came to a close, my heart began to fill with sadness over the fact that we were leaving behind beloved friends, a house we loved, and a delightful city. At the same time, I was reminded of C.S. Lewis’ statement about “pleasant inns” in his book The Problem of Pain. He wrote, “The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. . . . Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”1
As believers, we are called by God to train our minds and hearts to firmly latch onto the biblical teaching that we are passing through this world as pilgrims and strangers. We can never allow ourselves to become comfortable here. We are merely sojourners passing through this world on our way to glory. From the first promise of redemption in the garden (Gen. 3:15) to the glorious heavenly vision of the City of God (Rev. 22), the totality of the Bible focuses on the pilgrimage for which God has redeemed His people.
When God called Abraham to leave his family and his homeland, he “went out, not knowing where he was going” (Heb. 11:8). “By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise” (11:9). Moving from place to place, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob walked by faith in the promises of God. The Lord had promised Abraham that he would inherit the land; yet, the only land he ever possessed during his pilgrimage was a tiny plot that served as a burial place for him and for his wife, his children, and his grandchildren. The act of burial was the last great act of faith. It proved that he was looking for something better—the hope of the resurrection. Abraham never had a permanent home until he died. When he died in faith, he settled in “the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10).
Joseph also lived and died as a pilgrim and stranger on the earth. Abraham’s great-grandson spent the better part of his life as an alien in a foreign land. He was cut off from his earthly family until the end of his father’s life. He was instrumental in the rest of his brethren coming and dwelling in a foreign land. When he died, Joseph “made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones” (Heb. 11:22). By charging his brethren to take his bones up from Egypt and into the promised land (which would not occur until some four hundred years after he died), Joseph was teaching the Israelites that there was a better city—one for which God would raise him up, body and soul.
After Moses fled from Egypt into the wilderness of Midian, he married the daughter of the Midian priest Jethro and fathered a son with her. Moses named his firstborn son Gershom (literally meaning “stranger there”). Scripture teaches us the rich biblical theological meaning of this name in Exodus 2:21–22, where we read: “Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, ‘I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.’”
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Are Christians Redefining Sin in the Name of Love?
Redefining biblical doctrine to suit what we personally think is loving, gracious, or kind is wrong. Christians are called to love others. They are also called to kill sin in their lives and support fellow believers in godliness with all gentleness and compassion, not to give in to sin and pronounce it as good.
Many Christians today seek to love those who feel judged by the words they find in the Bible. People search the Scriptures in an attempt to prove that certain beliefs they want to hold—or certain actions they want to keep doing—are okay in God’s sight. Lifestyles Christians previously and universally viewed as sinful according to the Bible are now increasingly tolerated, accepted, and even celebrated.
Yet, things that make us feel good are not always good for us. In her Gospel Coalition article, “Love Your Neighbor Enough to Speak Truth,” Rosaria Butterfield writes:The supernatural power that comes with being born again means that where I once had a single desire—one that says if it feels good, it must be who I really am—I now have twin desires that war within me: “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Gal. 5:17). And this war doesn’t end until Glory.
The Christian life is a struggle, because now there is new spiritual life where there was once just the flesh. This flesh, which God originally made good, is now corrupted because of Adam’s disobedience and fall in the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:16–17; 3:1–19). The Holy Spirit now indwells all believers and is doing the work of sanctification in their lives. This is a lifelong process of dying to the flesh and living unto God.
It is not easy to give up the things in life that we love, but if they are opposed to God’s will, this is what Christ calls us to do:Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matt. 10:37–38)
Love and keeping Jesus’ commands go together. Jesus told his disciples:
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The Old Testament is Christian Scripture
The Old Testament is relevant for the Christian life because it is Christian Scripture. We are children of Abraham by faith, so the earlier covenants and redemptive acts of God are part of our history. We need the warnings and exhortations of the Old Testament. We need its songs and proverbs. We need to know about its prophets and kings. The Old Testament tells of saints before the cross, and they form a cloud of witnesses as we run the race after the cross.
The New Testament proclaims the arrival of the Messiah. With the coming of Jesus, God has kept Old Testament promises and prophecies. And with four Gospels, Acts, twenty-one letters, and Revelation, we have twenty-seven books pertaining to the advent of Christ and the mission of his church.
So let’s ask ourselves a question: how many Christian books are in the Bible? Only twenty-seven? No, not just twenty-seven. We do not have a Bible that’s divisible into Jewish and Christian books. Don’t think of the Old Testament as thirty-nine Jewish books and the New Testament as twenty-seven Christian books.
The whole Bible is Christian literature. Both the Old and New Testaments are for our discipleship. Followers of Jesus have sixty-six books because the Old Testament is Christian Scripture. Consider these seven truths:
First, the New Testament did not arise in a vacuum but within a theological and historical storyline that had been unfolding for many centuries. The New Testament is not beginning a new story from scratch. Rather, the New Testament is continuing the Old Testament story.
Second, the New Testament books are filled with Old Testament background. The teachings, parables, and miracles of Jesus are laden with this background. The titles, mission, and death of Christ must be understood in light of earlier Scripture. The New Testament authors use language of prophetic fulfillment that fuse their accounts with the Old Testament. As my friend Josh Philpot once said, “The single most important literature for understanding the New Testament is the Old Testament.”
Third, Jesus claimed that the Old Testament was about him.
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Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places: The Book of Ruth, Ch. 1
Perhaps you think you are better off living a private Christianity outside of the local church. Christ’s church is a messy place, full of saved sinners who will rub each other the wrong way, sin against each other, ignore each other, or try to control each other. While you may feel you get some benefit from walking in nature, practicing yoga, serving at the food bank, private devotion, etc., God has promised that it is in Christ’s church where you will grow up into love and be spiritually strengthened. No other activity can make that promise.
A while ago I was listening to a podcast about Jessica Buchanan, a humanitarian aid worker who was kidnapped and then rescued by SEAL Team Six. Such stories are filled with bravery and courage, not only by the person being rescued but obviously by those rescuing. The interesting thing was that Jessica had no idea that a seal team was going to rescue her; she had no idea what was going on for her behalf. The book of Ruth is similar in one particular way: The story focuses on a small Hebrew family that needs spiritual rescuing. God sets about rescuing them, and they don’t even see it coming.
In Ruth 1 we find both a nation and a family in spiritual disarray.
The story of Naomi’s family is set in the time of the Judges. If there is anything that is obvious about that time, it is that the people of Israel were continuing to fall away from God on a deeper and more tragic trajectory. Israel’s allegiance to God weakens more and more as the book of Judges progresses.[1] Elimelech and his family’s actions follow the mindset of life during the time of the Judges:In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judg. 21:25)
When faced with difficulty, Elimelech, Naomi, and their two children, Mahlon and Chilion, leave their home in Bethlehem and go to Moab to find sustenance. This is not just a normal move across town. As theologian Iain Duguid points out,
Elimelech’s choices were not equal choices, theologically speaking, in the way that the choice of city in which to live might be for us. God had called Elimelech to live in Bethlehem. He therefore had no business leaving there to go anywhere, least of all Moab.[2]
The land of Israel was God’s chosen land for his chosen people. God had given this land to Abraham’s descendants as a fulfillment of a promise to Abraham, and it was a land that was part of a special covenant between God and his people. Turning away from this land signaled a turning away from God who had given this land. Possessing the land was a special privilege, and having part of this land symbolized having a part in the people of God—a part in a life blessed by God. The Moabites, enemies of God’s people, ruled over Israel for 18 years during the time of the Judges. They had caused the people of Israel to sin grievously during the Exodus; therefore, God placed a curse on the sinful Moabites.
Elimelech’s family found weakness and death away from God and his people.
So while Elimelech, whose name means “My God is King,” and Naomi, whose name means “Pleasantness,” should have stayed in the land and cried out to their King for help to restore the pleasantness of the land of Israel, it seems that instead they looked with their eyes to find more pleasant fields of life in Moab.Related Posts:
