Making Choices

There are parts of the Bible that are very hard to understand. We can read through certain passages in the Old and New Testaments and really struggle to make sense out of what we read. Some passages present us with a paradox, a seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true.

In my previous Blog entries, I wrote about the richness of the Hebrew word shalom – how it encompasses interpersonal relationships, the health and well-being of people and animals, personal security, the welfare of society, and other aspects.

But the Bible also contains passages that bring a different perspective to the meaning of shalom, a perspective that we might be tempted to ignore. Here’s an example. In Leviticus 26, there is the conclusion to what scholars describe as the “Holiness Code” that covers chapters 17 through 26. The whole book of Leviticus, which most of us rarely read, records laws that the Lord gave to the Israelites to help them form a nation out of twelve nomadic tribes. Detailed regulations are given concerning religious worship and sacrifice, economic life, the administration of justice, political rule, and family structure.

Chapter 26 offers insights into why God so strongly and clearly states that if the people obeyed these commands, they would experience His blessings and His shalom. Specifically God promises to put “His dwelling place” among them – which basically means that God would be with them -- and He assures them that they would experience His shalom both spiritually and materially, including physical security, an abundant harvest, and the presence of God in their community. Their faithfulness would result in all of these blessings from God.

But God also makes it clear that disobedience would result in disaster – the cursed D’s: disease, destruction, desolation and death. So here’s the problem: There is a tension between our understanding that peace is a gift of God, not the result of human activity, but at the same time the promise that if we follow God’s commandments, we will create more peaceful conditions. If we don’t, our disobedience will result in the lack of shalom – the cursed D’s.

To put this another way, God is the primary source of shalom, yet men and women are given responsibility for the existence of shalom in their society or its absence. That’s a tough tension, not easy to resolve.

As I have reflected on this, it strikes me that this issue of the consequences of our actions, the consequences of the choices we make, deserves our attention. God has created us as free moral agents. Our freedom to make choices is an essential part of our humanity. This is in part what it means when the Bible says we were made in the image of God.

We have the freedom to make choices and that includes saying “No” to certain behaviors and actions. If we are really free – and we want to live a life according to Jesus’ commandments – then we are free to choose to avoid behavior that undermines God’s desire for shalom in our world.

So What?

• We are not helpless victims. Victimization is a common attitude in our time and, even though we are sometimes are hurt by the actions of others, we can choose not to respond in kind.
• Dealing with paradoxes in the Bible is not unlike dealing with them in our daily lives. Paradoxes are created when two opposing forces or ideas seem to be incompatible. But living with pressure or tension is not necessarily bad – it can also keep us sharp and alert. Can you think of some illustrations of this in your life?
• Jesus, the Prince of Peace, commands his followers to keep His commandments. Jesus does not want our vague expressions of love and He never asks us to feel certain ways about Him. He asks for a love expressed in our lives by the choices we make, by acts of our will. This is how we demonstrate our love for Jesus.
• There is another difficult question that is related to this discussion: Why do bad things happen to good people who are following Jesus’ commandments? I will reflect on this in subsequent entries.

Struggling with Ambiguity & Lack of Direction

The last three months have been a difficult time in my life, a time in which my ministry in Russia has become very confusing.  I have prayed for clear direction for my work, but no clear direction has come.  As I look to the future, I realize that I have no idea what lies ahead.

For those of you who know me, you will understand that for twenty years I have been working in Russia with the goal of building a faith-based liberal arts university, which -- by the way -- I was asked to establish by Boris Yeltsin’s Minister of Education in October 1990.  It took five years, in participation with a group of Russian and American educators, to get the school established, eights years to get it accredited, and nine years to build a campus facility.  Every step of the way was a battle, but through a series of miraculous events, we were able to get the school in operation and housed in a beautiful building.  Then, within three months of a joyous building dedication in May 2010, the Board was forced to make the difficult decision to suspend the Institute’s undergraduate program.  A series of decisions quietly made in the Kremlin to protect state universities at the expense of private schools, because of a dramatic decrease in the number of college-age students, made it impossible for the Institute to compete legally in the marketplace.

My dream, my work for twenty years, now appeared to be over.  I could not understand how so many miraculous events could occur to make the Russian-American Institute a reality, yet now it was clear that it had to be closed down.   God’s intervention on our behalf was evident numerous times, so how could this happen?  I went through a period of mourning, just trying to make sense out of a series of events that appeared senseless.

Living with ambiguity is difficult for everyone.   When events like this happen, it is hard not to be paralyzed.  Wrestling with doubt, questioning God’s presence in the midst of radical challenges in life – this is what I was struggling with.  Why?  Why now?

In times like this, going back to God’s Word and re-discovering His promises proved to be a helpful way of getting through this discouraging period.  I still don’t have any answers to why this has happened – why the Institute has to close its undergraduate program – but now I have a sense of expectancy as we search for a new mission in Russia.  Yes, I still would like some answers to my “Why?” questions, but I know those answers may not come for quite awhile.

But for me the bottom-line is this: God is a God of “Shalom” and He desires to bless and protect me.  I need to put my trust in His promises.  My questions may not get resolved quickly, my doubts may not be answered soon, but I have learned once again that trusting in God, even in periods of ambiguity, while not easy, is what is needed. 

This assurance of God’s desire to care for us is made beautifully evident in Numbers 6:22-27.  In this passage, God instructs Moses to tell Aaron and his sons, who were from the tribe of Levi and were set apart to serve as priests, to announce a blessing  from God on the people each day.  In Biblical literature, a blessing is a very special type of speech.  It is something that God gives us and yet we can also give God.  In these verses, God blesses His people, and in the Psalms, the writers often bless God.

Here are the words of the priestly blessing: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”  God is making it clear to His people that He has a covenant with them, that they bear His name, and that He will bless them.  What is the nature of His blessing?  Shalom (verse 26).

The promise of God was, first of all, protection.  “The Lord bless you and keep you.”  The word “keep” means watch, guard, and shelter.  “The Lord make His face to shine upon you.”  This graphic expression is the Hebrew way of describing one’s emotions.  For example, Genesis 4:5 tells us that when God refused Cain’s sacrifice, Cain’s face was “downcast” or “his face fell.”  On the other hand, a favorable disposition was often described by a facial expression that “shined.”  When the Bible says God’s face “shined” when He looked on His people, it meant God was showing  His care and love and pleasure.

All of this graciousness and blessing from God results in one conclusion: Shalom!  God wants His people to have shalom.  God’s desire for His people today has not changed.  His wish for us is shalom. 

In times of ambiguity, in times when we lack clear direction in our lives and our prayers never seem to be answered in the ways that we expect, we need to trust the God who offers us blessing and protection.

So What?

• Having doubts, questioning God – these are experiences all of us go through and God is not angered by this.  Doubt is not the opposite of faith, fear is.

• David, the King of the Jews who God loved, often struggled with doubts that he expressed to God.  Read his struggles with God in Psalm 22:1-4 or Psalm 28.

• When we have friends who are going through times of doubt, times when their lives lack direction, what can we say to encourage them?  Does God’s promise of shalom offer us a helpful response?