Third Time's the Charm

It was bound to happen eventually, I suppose. I had been tested twice after suspected exposures to COVID, twice quarantined while awaiting results, twice cleared. For most of the day Wednesday I felt just fine. I got up early, as usual, and prepared for a busy day. After a full morning, I completed a midday workout and went home to shower before my next appointment. But something was off. I felt chilly in the shower, even while standing under the warm water. My temperature had been checked at 1pm when I visited a local business, and it was normal at that time. But when I got out of the shower, it was just over 100 degrees. Not a high fever, by any means, but slightly elevated. I assumed it was simply because of the hot shower or recent workout, so I continued checking my temperature every five minutes for half an hour. It remained just above 100. I scheduled an appointment at the local 24 hour testing center and drove over for my third COVID test of the year. Friday evening my results came back positive. I had COVID-19 and was symptomatic.

The first 24 hours after discovering I was running a fever were interesting. Wednesday evening I quickly became increasingly ill. My fever went up, I had a severe headache and chills, and I found it difficult to focus on my work. (If you received any emails or text messages from me during that time that were more incoherent than usual, my apologies.) I isolated myself in my home office, and Kirstie found me asleep on the floor wrapped in two sweaters and shaking with chills. The kids brought an extra mattress into the room, and I tossed and turned there all night. The fever mostly subsided by midday on Thursday, and I have been fever-free since that time. I am still fatigued, but overall I feel much better. If Wednesday evening was the worst of it, then my experience with COVID was as a sudden onset, moderately severe, and very short-lived fever. We could wish this was the case for everyone who contracts the virus. Sadly, that is not so.

The widespread hysteria and extraordinary measures taken by government and medical authorities in response to COVID-19 has been unfounded, at best, and arguably both counterproductive and harmful. Those interested in a better evidenced and more responsible proposal with widespread support from experts in relevant fields should consider Dr. Jay Bhatttacharya’s essay in the October 2020 edition of Imprimis entitled “A Sensible and Compassionate Anti-COVID Strategy”. Most of us should have little reason for alarm from a COVID-positive test. It is inconvenient, no doubt. The thought of sitting on the bench for the next 10-14 days does not thrill my soul. And the consequences for those whom I may have exposed before my symptoms appeared are also frustrating. But like the vast majority of people who contract this version of the Coronavirus, my experience will be most likely limited to mild to moderate symptoms followed by the natural production of antibodies and no long-term impairment to my health.

Arizona has been experiencing a dramatic increase in the number of COVID cases in the last several weeks. This might be explained by a number of factors, but there is no arguing that hospitalizations due to COVID-related illness have increased. Within our own congregation we have gone from having almost no documented cases of COVID to close to a dozen infected households in less than two weeks. As one of our ruling elders observed: “I have gone from not knowing anyone with COVID, or anyone awaiting COVID test results, to having COVID effects all around me in the blink of an eye.” Indeed, this ought to be sobering and humbling. No matter how skeptical some of us may be about the media’s characterization of the severity of this virus or how much we may disapprove of the government’s strategy in seeking to contain and control the spread, we should not deny that the virus is real and has the potential to seriously harm a certain segment of the population, specifically the elderly and those who are already immuno-compromised. This is a reminder that though we have massive brains and an even larger sense of self-importance, we are but animated dust, mudmen inflated by the breath of God, and capable of being leveled by a microscopic virus too small for the human eye to see.

I will be staying at home for the next 10-14 days per CDC guidelines, not because I am concerned for my own health, but because I am obligated to protect yours. We have too many elderly members, and as a pastor I interact with too many vulnerable persons each week, for me to risk spreading the virus. I am not eager for another quarantation, though I have plenty of books and projects to keep me occupied. It frustrates me to be on the sidelines at a time when it seems our congregation needs me more, not less. But part of the beauty and wisdom of presbyterianism is that it does not run on celebrity pastors or individual personalities. The church can do just fine without her pastor. She is served well by her ruling elders and by ministry to one another, and we are all sustained by the love and leadership of our Good Shepherd.

I am not concerned about my own health, and I trust our congregation overall will come through the current outbreak. But we have members who are ill for whom we ought to be very concerned, whose suffering with the virus is far more serious, and whose vulnerability is much greater. This is a time to labor in prayer for them. Our present inconvenience will prove to be a blessing if it turns us more toward more urgent and disciplined prayer and encourages greater brotherly love and concern for one another. --JME

Hosea 11:1 and the Son of God

Hosea 11:1 is memorable and significant because of its use by Matthew in the NT (2:15). There it is cited in relation to the Christ-child’s flight to Egypt to escape Herod’s violent jealousy and his subsequent return with Mary and Joseph. Matthew’s use of Hosea at this point has created a tremendous amount of discussion among biblical scholars and is frequently assigned in seminary classrooms as an exercise in exploring how the NT uses the OT. We will not enter into the debate over hermeneutics in this lesson, but I do think it is important to make three observations before offering some reflection and application on Matthew’s use of this verse.

First, both Hosea 11:1 and Matthew’s use of it in his Gospel (2:15) are the inspired word of God and, therefore, are to be accepted as authentic, authoritative, and applicable by the Church. Both writers were carried along by the Holy Spirit in their writing. Matthew did not misunderstand or misuse Hosea’s prophecy in citing it as he did. His use of the verse was just as inspired by God, just as fully the word of God, as was Hosea’s original statement of it. Second, the biblical writers saw a larger, more thematic relationship between the history of revelation and redemption and the Incarnation and atoning work of the Son than just explicit predictions and their fulfillment. What does it mean that the OT prophets foretold the coming of the Lord? There are many specific places where the prophets anticipated particular events in the life and ministry of Jesus. But the entire OT anticipates Christ and is about him (Luke 24:24-27, 44-45). All of the prophets foretold his coming (Acts 3:18, 21, 24). OT prophecy and its NT fulfillment is not simply a matter of finding a specific prediction in one place and its corresponding occurrence later in the Bible. The entire narrative of Scripture, the whole scope of human history, anticipates the need, prepares the way, and ultimately helps the elect to perceive the coming of Christ and his saving work on behalf of God’s people. Third, the biblical writers, inspired by the Holy Spirit, were able to make connections we might not be able to easily recognize or immediately understand, and they were able to affirm relationships in authoritative ways where we must proceed more cautiously, even as we seek to learn from and imitate their way of seeing Christ everywhere and in everything. I have to be very careful in how I find Christ in the OT, and yet I know from the NT writers that he appears on every page. Some say we should refrain from making any connection to Christ in OT stories unless the connection is made in the NT. Others are so eager to see Christ on every page that their reading of the OT loses any meaningful relationship to the original context and becomes more like an exercise in cloud watching. Wisdom and faithful exegesis will help us find a balance between the two extremes.

What are we to make of Matthew’s citation of Hosea 11:1? Let me suggest the prophecy in Hosea is rightly and profitably read in three aspects. Note I said three aspects, not three different perspectives; these are not different views or interpretations. I am not suggesting three meanings of the passage. I am suggesting that like a gem held up to the light, we can turn the text in our hands and see that within the same passage, contained in the original context and authorial intent, are at least three ways in which the message is rightly understood and applied in relation to God’s people.

First, Hosea 11:1 should be read historically in light of Israel’s experience in the Exodus. The Lord made covenant with Abraham four hundred years earlier, but his rescue of Jacob’s family from slavery in Egypt was the day God formally came to claim the people as his adopted son. He loved Israel before the exodus, but his love was manifested by the exodus. He called Israel out of the house of bondage to be his adopted child. He led him, fed him, protected him, taught him, and gave him an inheritance which the people did not deserve. Though individual Israelites would not refer to God as their Father with the same kind of personal intimacy Jesus did and which he taught his disciples to use, the Lord truly was like a Father to the nation, and his love and care for them was a demonstration of that tender and gracious relationship.

Second, Hosea 11:1 should be read messianically in light of Christ’s experience as a child. Jesus was taken to Egypt because it was no longer safe for him to remain at home. He went there as a stranger who did not belong. Eventually the Lord brought his Son out of that land and called him back to the land of promise. Jesus is the true Son of God, only Begotten rather than adopted, the new and true Israel in whom is to be found everlasting fellowship with God and who secures the everlasting kingdom of God. Everything that Israel was supposed to be, Christ was and is. Everything Israel had opportunity to do, Christ has done. Israel could only foreshadow what the Incarnate Son of God would be and accomplish. Israel’s experience in the OT anticipated Messiah, and Jesus’ life and ministry in the NT fulfilled every aspect and expectation of Israel’s covenant with God and history.

Third, Hosea 11:1 should be read redemptively and typologically in light of the Church’s experience in union with Christ. Because we are united to Jesus, his experience also becomes ours. We see this clearly in multiple passages. Take, for example, Romans 5-8. Those who are united to Adam (covenantally) partake of his sin, guilt, and death; those united to Christ partake of his obedience, righteousness, and life (5). Jesus did not merely die for us; we died with him and rose again to newness of life (6). In Christ we have died to the Law that we were formerly bound to (7), and now we are accounted as sons of God because of our participation in the Son of God by the Spirit of God (8). So the Christ child went down to Egypt because we were captives there, held by the power of sin, subject to eternal death. He went down to Egypt to be our Redeemer, and when he came out of Egypt, we were carried to safety and freedom with him. Through faith we enter the life, experience, suffering, and righteousness of the Incarnate Son of God. We are God’s sons, by adoption, because we have been joined to God’s only Begotten Son. Unlike OT Israel, we will not return to Egypt because Jesus never will. We were not rescued independently or individually. Our exodus took place in and with Jesus Christ, so we never have to return to the house of bondage. --JME

One Year Ago

One year ago today, the Lord spared the lives of both of our daughters. One year ago today, he protected them in a car crash that profoundly affected their lives. One year ago today, one daughter’s back was broken, but God did not allow her to be paralyzed. If the impact had been one or two seconds later, Hannah would almost certainly not have survived the crash. Instead she walked away mostly unharmed. If Ellen Beth had stayed upright in her seat rather than diving to the middle to protect herself, she might have only been bruised rather than having a fractured spine. If only, but the Lord was in control of it all. He superintended every second of that terrible day: the terror as the van suddenly appeared accelerating through a red light, the crash that destroyed their car and spun it in the intersection, the moments immediately after as Ellen Beth screamed and Hannah jumped out to pull her from the car, the gas pooling around the vehicle, Ellen Beth’s legs that would not work, the young men from the oil change shop on the corner who ran with blankets to help, the nurse from Children’s Hospital who was right behind them and who ran from her car to render aid at the scene. Every moment, every aspect, everything about that day was governed and guided by the sovereign providence of a God who is almighty and all-loving, ever-present, and yet transcendent. The girls had nightmares for a long time; they still sometimes do. Ellen Beth spent two weeks in the hospital, three months in a wheelchair, and lives with pain in her back every day to this day, one year later. But they survived. And God used it for good, just as he promised to do.

It would be inappropriate for me to name every way that day has changed our family and our daughters’ lives. This is far too public a forum for that. Perhaps those details will be recalled on Judgment Day or remembered in glory. But there are some things that can and should be said. After all, when God promises to “work all things together for the good of those who love him,” he does not promise we will always see that work with our own eyes. We see the fulfillment of that promise by faith, but we will enter glory still ignorant of just how many ways that promise proved true so that we might be fitted for glory.

Ellen Beth was an accomplished baker and pastry artist when a reckless driver ran a red light and changed her life. She had two years of professional training, a national industry certification, and a growing home business making custom cakes. Two weeks in the hospital convinced her God had a different path for her life. She wanted to help other people the way so many helped her during a dark and painful time. She thought, she prayed, we watched, and we waited. By the time she got out of the wheelchair, she knew her future lay in healthcare. By summer she was volunteering at a local hospital, obtaining CPR certification, and applying for a nursing assistant program. A few weeks ago she passed her state boards to become a licensed nursing assistant, and she has been hired to begin work at the same local hospital. Now she is registering for prerequisite courses in the Spring semester and plans to apply to nursing school. There is no way to know how many people she has already encouraged, comforted, and helped by her volunteer work, during her clinicals, and just by allowing us to tell her story. There is no way to know how many lives she will positively impact as a patient care technician and, perhaps one day, our Lord willing, as a registered nurse. But God knows. He knows every one of them. And every one of those touches are the result of a reckless driver running a red light and nearly killing both of my daughters.

We were blessed to have two daughters that were exceptionally accomplished and mature even before the crash. But there is no question that day changed them. They are wiser. Their souls have grown older. They experienced horror that day. There was no way to save them from it. Pulling your sister out of a mangled car as gasoline pools at your feet leaves a scar they will carry forever. They tasted terror, and they saw the goodness of God, his nearness, his power, his presence. They no longer have to fear disaster; they’ve already been there, and they found their Savior was there ahead of them, standing on top of the water in the midst of the storm. He was waiting for them in that intersection because he knew what would happen. He would not allow them to face it alone. He did not keep them from danger and fear, but he held their hand and led them safely through it. I do not know what hardships lie ahead of my daughters, but I can imagine there will be many if the Lord prolongs their lives. But I do not fear whatever they may face. They have experienced God’s hard providence, and it led them to a greater trust and a closer walk with Christ.

Thank you to all who have prayed for us, encouraged us, and helped us in countless ways over the last year. Ellen Beth has daily pain from her back, but she does not use any prescription pain medication and has not had to in a very long time. She manages the pain with weekly acupuncture, electrical stimulation, heat and ice, and regular exercise. She is training hard, working hard, studying hard, and living with joy. The crash and injury did not rob her of her delight with life, and it has not robbed us of the joy of her smile. Her cheeks still cramp from laughing almost every day. Our home is full of laughter even after so many tears. Our lives will never be the same, but God has used that fateful day one year ago and the months following to draw us closer to himself and better fit us for everlasting glory.

One year ago today, the Lord spared both of our daughters. He did not have to. If he had taken them instead, his promises would still be true, and he would still be good. But he spared them, and we are thankful. Praise be his holy Name.

--Joel & Kirstie

The 100 Year Plan

What would a 100 year plan for parenting, church planting, and pastoring look like? I have been thinking a lot about that question lately, and I want to think about it a lot more. It seems like those activities are planned and executed in the context of a much shorter timeframe. Parents might anticipate their work stretching over 18-22 years, but having had five under the age of 10, I suspect many parents are just trying to survive one day at a time. Church planting is usually strategized based on a 4-10 year window of opportunity, and many church plants fail and are closed before the upper limit is reached. Pastoring seems in most places to be done on a week by week, year by year basis, with relatively little thought for multi-year trajectory and the shaping of a culture.

One of my favorite scenes in literature appears in Lewis Carroll’s satirical novel Alice in Wonderland. Alice is traveling along the road when she encounters the Cheshire Cat, having first seen him a short time before in the Duchess’s house.

“Cheshire Puss,” she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name…. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where--” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

“--so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

If you walk long enough, you’re sure to get somewhere, but how do you know if it will be somewhere you would like to be? We might say with the best of Reformed intentions, “Of course, the Lord is sovereign over all things; therefore, I simply trust he will lead me wherever he wants me to go!” True, but if this is our way of rationalizing a lack of forethought and intention, then we might as well start driving our cars with our eyes shut tight. After all, we can trust he will lead us where he wants us to go, even if we do find out his secret decree from the foundation of the world was that we would be killed by running off the road while trying to drive with our eyes shut. The Scriptures affirm God’s sovereignty over all things, but they also affirm our responsibility for planning and action. Failure to think ahead is not spiritual; it is stupid. Solomon counsels:

Prepare your outside work,

Make it fit for yourself in the field;

And afterward build your house. (Prov. 24:27)

Why would a person prepare the outside of his estate before he builds a bedroom? Because he knows he will have to eat. First do what is necessary to put food on the table, then build the table to put the food on. Americans are accustomed to visiting the local grocery store to obtain food for supper the same night, but the farmer plants his field and cares for his flocks and herds in order to obtain food for the next winter. Later in the same chapter Solomon observes:

I went by the field of the slothful,

And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;

And there it was, all overgrown with thorns;

Its surface was covered with nettles;

Its stone wall was broken down.

When I saw it, I considered it well;

I looked on it and received instruction;

A little sleep, a little slumber,

A little folding of the hands to rest;

So your poverty will come like a prowler,

And your want like an armed man. (Prov. 24:30-34)

Do our families, our mission works, our local churches look like the neglected farm of a lazy man? I’m sure the lazy farmer was busy. Lazy men are always busy, just ask one. They are busy here and there, doing this and that, in a frenzy of activity: purposeless motion, undirected effort, spinning their wheels. Where are you trying to go? He doesn’t know. He’s just trying to keep up with his to-do list for today.

You have to know where you want to go before you can know how to get there. You need to have a vision for where you want to be in ten years in order to know what you ought to do today. And your activity today needs to be meaningfully connected to that long-term plan, not just tangentially associated. When mentoring young men, I usually encourage them to begin with a 10-year timeframe. Where do you want to be in ten years? Not just what do you want to do in terms of career or accomplishments, but what kind of man are you trying to become? Now what do you need to do today in order to move in that direction?

Looking ahead ten years and working backward to today is a good start, but Scripture gives us a much larger view of God’s covenant plan and purpose. “He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded for a thousand generations” (Psa. 105:8). If we take a biblical generation to be roughly forty years, then God is working on a forty thousand year project. The point is not strictly mathematical, but before you dismiss the math, be impressed with what it is communicating, even if symbolically. Abraham lived less than 4,000 years ago. We are 1/10 of the way into a long-term program in which all of the families of the earth will be blessed.

Ten years may be a good starting point for personal development, but it is far too short a span to plan something as important as a family, a church plant, or an established congregation. I began praying for whoever my children would someday marry when they were babies. I’ve been praying for my future grandchildren since my own kids were very young. And now I am praying for my great-grandchildren whom I may not live to see but with whom I hope to spend eternity in the presence of Christ and the glory of the new creation. Even this is too small a scale.

The problem is not that our dreams are too large; it is that they are too small. Parents want their children to do well academically in order to get into college. Why aren’t we instead focused on training them to be godly parents and grandparents who will raise future generations of saints? I realize these goals are not mutually exclusive, but if we are trying to do too many things, we won’t succeed in most of them or do any of them well. You cannot aspire to live well in the City of Man and keep your sights fixed on the City of God. You can, however, plan, plow, plant, and pray for the City of Man to become the City of God, which it will, eventually. If we aim to build a single generation family or mission work or local church, then we should not be surprised if that is how long it lasts. But God did not call us to build castles from wood, hay, and straw. He commanded us to build a kingdom out of living stones, and that edifice is founded upon an eternal, immovable Rock.

We do not build the kingdom; God does. But he works through means, and that includes you and me. Parenting, church planting, pastoring, preaching: all are tactics in the larger work of kingdom building which Christ died and rose to accomplish. We need to understand our role and responsibility in terms of long-term kingdom development, not just day to day activity. We are not merely providing education; we are shaping character. We are not rearing a family; we are building a city. We are not making rules for a single household; we are shaping a culture. May God help us. I do not hope for my great-grandchildren to remember me or for the members of ROPC in 2120 to even know my name. I do hope and pray, by God’s grace, for my labors today to lay the foundation and further the cause that will bless, strengthen, and bring joy to those saints. --JME

Providence at the Precipice

The Lord had already declared the world’s destruction when he instructed Noah to begin building the Ark. The patriarch and his family were shut inside the vessel just one week before every other living creature which dwelt on the land died. They didn’t even have time for a training voyage or to perform buoyancy tests. To call this cutting it close would be an understatement, but actually, Noah was given more of a cushion than many of the saints whom the Lord rescued throughout redemptive history.

Angels grabbed Lot by the hand and literally dragged him from the city of Sodom as fire began to fall from the sky. Joseph was already in the pit and his brothers were preparing to murder him when a band of traders just happened to pass by. The Egyptian army was already within striking distance when the children of Israel found themselves trapped by the sea, and only a pillar of divine fire prevented Israel’s slaughter before the Lord miraculously parted the waters and led his people through on dry land. Manna fell every morning for six days, but except for the sixth no one was able to gather more than one day’s worth. There was no taking a day off from gathering food every morning. The cupboards were bare. A decision to sleep in rather than going out to gather manna was a decision to fast for the rest of the day. How many more stories could we name? Time would fail us if we recited the wilderness battle against Amalek which appeared to depend on Moses’ deltoids, or the experience of Joshua and Israel at Jericho, or multiple stories from the time of the judges, such as Samson who won his greatest victory at the moment of his defeat, or David’s near death experiences on countless occasions, when there was no more than a step (or a slung stone) between him and certain death, or the experiences of the prophets who suffered, fasted, and struggled mightily before seeing God’s hand of blessing. We could speak of Jesus and the apostles or the numberless stories of saints in Church history who were at the very precipice of disaster when God’s blessing appeared. Some of them did not survive the crisis, but their experience became the occasion for some of God’s greatest acts of kindness, revival, and redemption to be seen.

What should we think when circumstances in our lives, our families, the visible Church, or the broader world seem on the verge of disaster? Should we reassure ourselves that everything will work out fine? Tell that to Samson as the stones of the Philistine temple fell on his head, crushing his skull, and ushering him into the spirit realm. Should we imagine that nothing bad will ever happen? Explain that to the martyrs who were tortured and killed for their faith in Christ. Explain it to faithful parents who watched their children die of the plague or to believing parents today who have held their children after the last breath left their bodies. Let’s not be so foolish as to think the health and prosperity heresy has any credibility at all. If what those snake oil salesmen are peddling is Christianity, then we are all going to Hell.

What we can know, what we must remember, is that God loves to provide for his people when they are poised on the precipice. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Not “give us this first day of the month everything we will need until the next paycheck.” God does not make support payments once a month or every two weeks; he cuts support checks every day, usually sometime after you realize you don’t have enough, cannot tough it out, and probably won’t survive. That is when he shows up. That is when redemption and revival and reformation happen: when the King is already dead, his body wrapped in linen and laid in a tomb, and a large stone set against the opening and sealed so that no one can open it. No one can open the door to God’s blessing from the outside. Jesus opens the door to the glories of grace from inside the tomb. He did not save us from dying. He saved us by defeating death from within it. Things don’t get better until they are really, catastrophically, “only God can fix this and even that seems like a stretch,” bad. That is when he shows up, when we know we cannot save ourselves. When we know it was not our brilliance, our strength, or our three hundred warriors. It was the Lord. It could only be him. Father, give us today what we need for today, and help us to trust you for whatever we may face tomorrow. --JME