Parting with the sheep!

For anyone who knows me, they know I have a large sheep collection (the above photo is just a small sample) and there is a good reason for it. And many who I have explained the reason to, then decide that they also should collect sheep! 

So what is this ’sheep thing' all about?

I once heard a speaker (Bonnie Thomas) at a Women’s Event talk about an incident she had experienced. If I recall correctly, she had met an older eccentric Christian single lady whose home was full of collected sheep ‘stuff’ - ornaments etc including having a stuffed (taxiderm) sheep sitting atop her white grand piano, and Bonnie had asked her ‘why?’. The reply was something along the lines of as a single lady prone to worry, she decided she needed many reminders around her that she was just the sheep and Jesus was her Shepherd and she could trust him with everything. Amidst the conversation that followed, the lady gave Bonnie a little pewter lapel sheep pin, which she was wearing on the day I heard her speak. At that point I decided that if ever I began ‘collecting’ anything, I would collect sheep because of the meaning and context of sheep in Scripture and the reminders it would also give me to look to my Shepherd.

It was several years before I found my own ’first sheep’ - a hand-made tiny lapel-pin sheep, but from that point on whenever someone saw that little white lapel-pin sheep or saw my growing collection over the years, they would ask ‘why the sheep?’…and I would share the story. 

So over the decades I have amassed quite a large collection of sheep ornaments, sheep on tea-towels, sheep on socks, sheep on mugs, sheep on posters or paintings, little sheep, big sheep, fluffy sheep, cuddly sheep, pottery sheep etc etc. 

As we have to part with almost everything in our big move, almost all my ‘sheep’ stuff has had to be sold or given away. Most of it I have specifically given away to those who upon hearing the story in recent days, decided they too would like to start collecting sheep. So hopefully God has used many of them to help people more greatly give him glory by trusting him more as their Good Shepherd.

However, just a few days ago I came across a particular sheep and for some reason, as I picked it up to decide what to do with it, the idea of parting with it, just suddenly hit me harder than the others previously, even though it didn’t really have any extra-special significance. 

It got me thinking about two truths:

1. As one of Jesus’ sheep, I don’t have to worry about ever being separated from his presence, or being left-behind, or being excluded from some future allocation of inclusion, or not being able to ‘be with’ him for all eternity or being uncertain about what he is going to do with me at the end of the age. I don’t have to fear a coming day of painful rejection or that any partings with other sheep belonging to the Shepherd is final, because we will all meet again for eternity. What a wonderful joy and privilege, all because of what Jesus has done for us.

2. There are those who think they are sheep belonging to the shepherd but are actually they don’t belong to him and a day of parting will come—eternal parting. But this is not some simple thing, it is a parting with those that God has created to be his, but that he can’t take to himself forever because they rejected him. He has no joy in the death of the wicked (Ez 18:23), and doesn’t wish for any to perish (2 Peter 3:9). 

Unlike my sheep ornaments which are all sheep, those ones that will be left behind are actually not true sheep at all, but the bible describes them as goats. In Australia I found the idea rather strange of sheep looking like goats and getting them mixed, as goats and sheep in that part of the world don’t look similar at all. But here in Africa sheep are not as fluffy/woolly, and especially from a distance, the goats and sheep can appear very similar. It’s only on closer proximity and examination that the differences can be seen amidst a group of mixed animals grazing together. (The quick way to check if you are not familiar with what they look like is that the goat’s tail is ‘up’ and the sheep’s tail is ‘down’.)

If I suddenly had a sad ‘parting’ feeling with my pottery sheep (maybe its because I saw it more often as we used it as a door-stop), how much more does it sadden and grieve God’s heart when he knows a day is coming when those he created to be his, will never be, and there will be a forever eternal final and full parting. 

Our move means I will miss all my sheep, but it also means we have many long held friendships that will soon feel the grief of a temporary parting. But as I pondered on ‘parting’ with my sheep, I am reminded that there is a two-fold lesson: 1. of thankfulness and joy of being a sheep that belongs securely and eternally with my Good Shepherd, but also of; 2. a reminder that there are many ‘lost sheep’ that the Shepherd wants to be ‘brought home’ and he asks us to share in the privilege of bringing them home so that the most significant future parting of all doesn’t need to occur for them, and we can have the joy of re-uniting with them one day.

When you see a sheep next time…remember the story that got me started collecting sheep, with the reminder to not worry but trust and rest in the loving care of our Shepherd…but also remember the extra two-fold lesson and rejoice again in being a sheep belonging to the Good Shepherd, and resolve again to be part of his Great Commission to share in gathering in the lost sheep who need an eternal Shepherd of their soul…

...and maybe you will start collecting sheep too, and passing on all the lessons that we can learn in life and Scripture from them.

'Last' Game Drives and Fun Surprises of the African Bush!

After two more game drives on successive weekends in the nearby Mokolodi Nature (Game) Reserve, I have some more photos to share. Both drives began very discouragingly with hardly seeing anything…but then ended with many surprises…like life, you can’t judge the end at the beginning, you have to actually traverse the tracks and wait to see what God brings and sometimes when you think not much is happening, suddenly there is a surprise! This has been the pattern of our last few Game drives. 

The first had the surprise of seeing the Rhino as mentioned in a previous blogpost,

After seeing almost nothing, the second ended in seeing three hippo relatively close in the beautiful afternoon sun - we have never seen three hippo together so close in that Game Reserve before! Just awesome!

Then the third and lastest drive was also quite 'boring' for much of it, when suddenly we spotted some Kudu...and not just one or two but we counted 11 together in a Kudu 'nursery' - and we had never seen that before either!

then there were birds up high and down low...

And then we suddenly saw a Wildebeest - who posed very nicely for good photos

and then a good sized Waterbuck having an afternoon snack of bush grass

and after some zebra and a lone giraffe hidden behind trees (and no photos of those)...we were almost at the gate to leave and suddenly on our left was a large giraffe less than 10 meters from the car..and he co-operated very well for some good photos!

Jesus' Greatest Miracle - learning new lessons about honour and shame from the feeding of the 5000

Did you know that the feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle of Jesus (apart from the resurrection) that is recorded in all four gospels (Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, John 6)?

This may make it the greatest miracle. I guess the gospel writers thought so if it was the only one so important and prominent that all of them wanted to include it in their good news story about Jesus.

It’s one of those stories which many of us learnt in Sunday School. 

However, maybe there is more for us to learn from it than it simply being an example of how powerful Jesus was to turn a little bit of food into a lot of food!

Sometimes familiarity can breed ignorance. We can think we know it so well that we don’t really take the time to understand it and we can miss elements hidden in plain sight.

The more I study the issues of honour and shame, the more I realise of how much of the Bible I have ‘missed’ the point of. So I want to take a few moments to draw our attention to a fresh look at the ‘honour’ elements of this story, hopefully to give more context, and thus more useful observations, insights, and application:

• Lunch from a young boy - John’s gospel is the only one that mentions the 5 loaves and two fish came from a child’s lunch. In the cultural context, children were not valuable or prioritised, and if it was anything like in Africa, children were nowhere near the priority when it came to food and meals. Children usually eat last and/or least and are often chased away from food preparation areas. But here in this miracle not only did a child and a child’s food become the major focus, but everyone ate from the child’s food, including adults and social elders! Jesus honoured the value of a child by letting the child and his lunch be the centre of attention and via Jesus’ miracle, it was what provided for everyone there. He turned upside down cultural priorities that ignored or dismissed children (Matt 19:14) and elevated what would have usually been disregarded as insignificant.

• The honour of the mother who took the effort and care to send her boy with some lunch as he ran out of the house earlier in the day, when it seems that maybe others didn’t (or maybe for some reason that boy hadn’t eaten his yet!…but it was a good thing the mother still had given it to her son)

• Jesus honoured Andrew who was willing to at least tentatively offer what was available, even though he doubted. Our faith doesn’t have to be full and confident for God to act, it just has to be enough to bring what we have to Jesus. He will do the rest. Andrew noticed people and brought others to Jesus. He brought his brother Simon Peter (John 1:41) and here he brought this young boy with his lunch. Andrew wasn’t maybe the prominent speaker of the disciples (his brother Peter gets that nomination), but obviously he had a strong but quiet faith that knew Jesus was the answer to the needs of others.

• Jesus honoured the disciples by including them in the sourcing of the food and distribution of the food and blessing. Jesus could have just said ‘food be there’ like he said ‘wind be still’. But He didn’t. When we include others in what we are doing we are communicating that we value them and thus it is a form of honouring them. We can often think that to include others and have them help us means we are lacking the capacity, and so we often want to prove we can ‘do it by ourselves’. Or we might fear others sharing in the glory of our possible success. But Jesus didn’t have the disciples be involved because he lacked something and ’needed’ their help. Jesus didn’t lack the power to feed everyone. He had the humility to involve others. He sent the disciples to find what resources were available and then used what was offered up to him. Then he had them organise the people into groups and hand out the food and gather up the left-overs. He included them to participate in the process. He calls us to do the same…to participate in the process of fishing for men and feeding his sheep, caring for others, and praying for others.

• Jesus showed honour and respect for God’s provision through good stewardship of what they had. He was not wasteful but had the left-overs gathered up so that ’nothing would be lost’ (John 6). It also honoured God’s creation by not just leaving a mess of crumbs and fish bones strewn across the area at the end, but by gathering up the left-overs. This also showed honour and respect for others who might come that way later and would not want to smell or step on old fish.

• Jesus honoured the Father by giving thanks - some gospels in the English use the word ‘blessing’ - that Jesus ‘blessed’ the food. John’s gospel describes it as Jesus ‘gave thanks’ using the word ‘eucharist’ which is probably a good way to understand it. This is linked to the word ‘charis’ which is also from where the word ‘grace’ comes from. Romans 1:21 links the importance of honouring God with giving thanks. Mark, Luke and Matthew in their gospels choose to use the word ‘eulogeo’ which means to speak well of - ’say a good word', to bless, to praise, or express gratitude. Both are words of acknowledging the importance of another. In other words, honouring another. In this case, honouring God the Father and giving the credit to Him for His provision.

SO what does the miracle show us? -

Apart from the fact that Jesus can make food go further than expected and supply all our physical needs, it shows us that:

• he is not limited by human resources. 
• he is not limited to our idea of mathematics. 
• when we like Philip limit our walk with God and understanding of His kingdom to what we can figure out, we can get it very wrong! 
• he can supply all our needs. 
• we don’t have to have all the answers about how God is going to do something, we just have to offer what we have and let Him take care of the rest. 
• just like the food that was ‘more than enough’, what Jesus gives is not limited or restricted by our understanding or what we think are logical or ’normal’ processes —whether its food for hungry stomachs or grace for hungry hearts that fall short of glory, Jesus will always be enough and plenty. 

Furthermore, we should consider that…

1. this was not some random miracle, but Luke 9:11 tells us that it was at the end of Jesus teaching about the kingdom of God and curing people of disease (which pictures for us that Jesus came not only to cleanse and heal bodies but to cleanse and heal souls, rescuing them from shame and restoring them to full glory by forgiving sin     Luke 5:17-26).  

2.This miracle is within the time of teaching that he was giving at a desolate place in the region of Bethsaida. John relates it stating it happened the day before the crowd had essentially followed him and found him on the other side of the sea of Galilee. It was there he taught them about him being the ‘bread of life’ (v35), which he directly linked with saying in v 37-40 ‘All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never cast out…everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life…'

3.This miracle pictures for us that His gift of glory in salvation, is not only free (the people didn’t have to spend money or travel anywhere to partake, they just had to respond and receive), but it is abundant. 

We don’t have to worry if the grace Jesus offers is just enough for a certain number of people that we can count, but we can be assurred that his grace is, will, and can, never be exhausted. 

Not only were the people present fed, but there were baskets left over. We don’t actually even know how many the exact numbers were who were filled. But we just know, that even though the numbers were big (and no human calculation could conceive of a way to feed or explain how that many people could be fed with just a boy’s lunch of 5 small loaves of bread and 2 small fish), it was done. We could say that he over-estimated the amount and ‘wasted’ 12 baskets full of food scraps gathered up afterwards—although I guess he and the disciples had meals supplied for many days after that! But was food for the disciples the main point of having left-over food? I would suggest not, as Jesus had every opportunity to privately create other ways to make sure they were fed. This was a public display for a public lesson and thus a lesson for us. 

One of the biggest problems with glory and honour in our world, is that we understand it in a way that makes us think of it in terms of scarcity. Thus we think of it in terms of competing with others for it. We think if one has something then another person misses out. We think of things in a ‘limited supply’ mentality and perspective. We think that if we have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and one person eats one loaf and 1 fish that we have only 4 loaves and 1 fish left. But Jesus shows that if he starts with 5 loaves and 2 fish and someone eats 1 loaf and 1 fish that nothing of those loaves and fish haven’t been used up at all, in fact with Jesus when over 5000 people eat not just a loaf and a fish each as a snack but keep eating till they are filled, there are 12 baskets of scraps left over, which were more than they started with. 

Scarcity is not an issue. Abundance is reality. The specific numbers don’t determine how many people are filled, but who is willing to respond and receive. The reality of the provision is not in how many receive it, but that it is abundantly available for all. 

We don’t have to fight or compete for glory. We don’t have to fear if someone else has it, we don’t, or if someone has more public recognition, that we have less value. In God’s Kingdom through Christ there is enough glory and honour for all. All God’s children have equal honour value in Christ. 

It’s a bit like a candle flame. One small flame that can light a massive fire or an infinite number of candles. If I light 53 candles from a small flame, it doesn’t mean that flame can only light 53 candles. It can light an infinite number of candles even though only 53 were lit. We don’t have to fear that if we see someone else light their candle that we won’t be able to light ours. Restored honour in Christ is not on the terms of mis-placed honour from finite human beings, it is on a scale that is based not on our analysis and calculations but on the One who is infinite and divine. 

This is not merely an interesting story about 5000+ people satisfying their physical hunger one day on a hillside. 

This is a miracle that teaches us about the reason Jesus came — to turn upside down the world’s honour priorities and bring restored glory of abundant life for spiritual hunger in unlimited availability in ways and mechanisms we cannot fathom and least expect, but can partake of and know are thoroughly real. 

Let us think deeply on this ‘greatest miracle’ and learn from it in ways that cause us to give even more glory to God for his gift to us of Jesus.

From the Tiny to the Tall - more animals in the African bush

As our time in Africa nears towards a close, another thing we enjoying some more game park drives. We will miss the African bush which is always ready to give new and unexpected experiences.  We recently took another visit to the two tiny local game reserves. Neither have the big cats, but still there are wonderful sights to behold…even though they can never all be captured on camera. Sometimes I can even have the camera positioned and about to ‘click’ and the animal or bird suddenly moves!…

But here are some of the moments I managed to capture. When you drive around a Game Reserve you never know what you might see. Sometimes, like on our recent two drives, you can drive for ages and see nothing or very little but you never know what is around the next bend or behind the next tree…and this time of year with the softer winter sunlight, each experience seemed to have special beauty to it. 

 Our first experience that time was ‘just another wharthog’…but this guy was a really good specimen, with two rather impressive tusks!, and with a hitch-hiker bird on his back. And its not often you can get a photo this clear and looking right at the camera!

Toward the end of that drive we also spotted a few other warthogs in the marshy grass, nose-to-nose and busy discovering some kind of tasty morsels in the mud.

Then it was ostriches that were our next view - these large flightless birds of a small brain and long neck, whose large egg shells are prize souvenirs, and feathers provide many effective feather dusters across the region’s homes, are fascinating in their peculiarliness. 

Then we had a completely new experience of seeing a group of these smaller Spotted Dikkop birds about 40cm tall, that freeze like statues and stay mainly on the ground. They are nocturnal, well camouflaged, and can live up to 20 years. 

This one was standing motionless on one leg for ages.

And this one nearby was also motionless in this position for ages too. 

The next drive also included mostly birds, including probably the most hornbills that we have ever seen in any one drive…

And then a goose just resting by a small dam.

And a beautiful tiny butterfly perfectly positioned in the sun, warming itself on a thorn tree branch

But just when it seemed like that was all we were going to see…

...suddening around a bend we spotted some zebras - two mothers and their foals. But unfortunately they quickly ran off into the thick bush and I couldn’t get a photo. 

However, after another long period of ‘zero’ animals, there was another bend in the road, and WOW…three Rhinos! (Two adults and a youngster). They too started off into the bush, but I did get to zoom in with a photo of the second adult who paused slightly before disappearing completely also into the bush.

I was amazed again at just how big these creatures are!

Then as a final ‘icing on the cake’ we were able to enjoy the young version of the tallest animal - the giraffe, when we spotted a couple of young ones behind some trees, but they were playing ‘hard to photograph'.

But after some quiet patient waiting till they moved a little bit, we were finally able to see them more clearly.

God’s creatures on the African continent never cease to cause us to be in awe of our Creator and His magnificent creation. What an wonderful privilege and opportunity we have had to enjoy them as much as we have.

A Godly Grandmother, the Dynamic of Honour, and the 'Wiles of the Devil'

Last weekend here in Botswana, and many other places in the world, was Father’s Day.

And just the prior week I learnt something new, not about my late father, but his mother, my grandmother…something that surprised me in relation to honour-shame dynamics.

In the course of combing through all our files and papers to decide what to keep and what to toss, I came across a small bundle of old yellowed foolscap papers of Bible Study notes, typed on a traditional manual ribbon typewriter. At the top was a hand-written notation that these were my Grandmother's notes from the Bible Class she taught (estimated maybe taught in the 1960’s). I think maybe they were given to me after she died as her estate was being sorted through.

The topic of the first Class notes bundle was ‘The Wiles of the Devil’. The second was on ‘Genesis’.

As I read them, what I discovered both amazed and excited me. It also really made me ask more questions about our English speaking world’s recent Christian literature.

The Wiles of the Devil

I hadn’t even read 10 lines down the first page when I read what made me stop and think ‘wow’!

“The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever”

A charge to keep I have

A God to glorify…

- God made man for Himself - He wants man’s allegiance and loyalty.

Now that might not sound very profound. However, two words stood out, which in all my research, don’t turn up very much in general Christian literature of the last century or so, unless I find them in the literature specifically discussing honour and shame dynamics and perspectives challenging the current and recent usual theological understandings. 

The two key words were ‘allegiance’ and ‘loyalty’. 

Both of these are not usual Western world ‘guilt-innocence’ and individual/rules/obedience language terms. It’s not that we never hear or read them, but that they are terms that are rare to see in the context of recent theological literature. They are very much related to honour-shame and relational/community dynamics. 

But here in my Grandmother’s notes, not only are they there, but they are obviously foremost in her mind to include and emphasise at the very beginning of her Bible class.

She obviously believed that the best and primary way to understand God’s creation of man, was that we were made for God and were meant to give Him glory by our allegiance and loyalty.

Did she mention ‘obedience’ at all in her notes? Yes. But not much and not at the beginning. The primary thoughts and understanding she seemed to want to convey were not rules, but relationship; a relationship of ‘allegiance and loyalty’.

Before she talked about the ‘wiles of the Devil’ and how he tempts us, she wanted to lay down a clear explanation of what the Devil is going to tempt us away from. He will try to make us into the opposite of what is God’s will for us. 

God’s will is for us to have relationship toward him in allegiance and loyalty. Therefore, we need to be alert to anything that is going to steer us away from that allegiance and loyalty. Temptation to sin, is temptation to not give God the allegiance and loyalty he should have and which he made us for. Here she is raising a concept long before the debate in recent years seen as ‘controversial’ to say that ‘allegiance’ is strongly involved in our walk of faith in God, such as explained in Matthew Bates’ book ’Salvation by Allegiance Alone'.

In all my extensive reading, it is rare to find theology or aspects of Christian living explained in these ways in the last hundred years or so. Yet here it was in front of me as I read her notes!

And lest I thought this is accidental terminology, within the first couple of pages she spoke in honor-shame language multiple times: 

1. “He tempts the Christian to sin so that God and Christ may be dishonoured, instead of honoured, glorified, so that we are not able to enjoy fellowship with God, or offer Him worship.”

2.“We must need to keep a clean slate with God - sin must be confessed, forgiveness and cleansing sought. All sin is dishonouring to God and we are to live to his glory”

3.“…any failure on our part is this matter of conduct discredits the Gospel, discredits God and the Lord Jesus Christ and all for which we stand.”

Further along on page 7 she talked about the way the Devil uses the errors of the ‘isms’ — in other words other religions and belief systems. She first mentions Roman Catholicism and says:

 “Roman Catholicism while believing in Christ as Son of God puts Mary before Him. This is dishonouring to God and His Son.” (underlining is hers)

Again and again the way the Christian life, the gospel, sin, false doctrines, and temptation is framed in her notes is dominated by the context of honour and dishonour. 

Genesis

Then I turned to her notes on Genesis. 

She noted the reliability of the Bible and the various views of how the world came to be. She pointed out the downfalls of such arguments as given by Theistic Evolutionists, summarising the emphasis of her main point by saying:

 “It would seem they deliberately endeavour to discredit and dishonour the Bible.”

Again, I was so surprised at the terminology she chose, not because it is wrong, but just the opposite, because it is so rightly said, but so often not said in that way in our current era.

We generally talk about such matters of doctrine and Biblical truth using terminology such as ‘error' or ‘heresy’ or poor theology and hermeneutics. These all focus on the rules of textual study, or the right or wrong facts/doctrines, or analytical and logical processes. They don’t focus on the relationship we are supposed to have with God and His Word based on the honour we should have for Scripture.

The Dynamic of Honour and our Modern World

My Grandmother grew up in a context in Australia that was ‘Western’ but more British Western than American Western. She came from a heritage of English nobility and her official mail from certain British sources was addressed to the ‘Honourable……’. But her understanding of honour dynamics were clearly more than just a word on an envelope. It extended deeply into her understanding of the concept, not only in her cultural heritage, but her Christian identity, the pages of her Bible and her walk with God.

What surprised me, and challenged me, as I read, was how is it that between her generation and mine, we have so significantly lost this honour perspective? Why have I had to go digging for it like lost treasure and go against the tide of the current Western evangelical understandings of Biblical truth to discover this deeper and wider dynamic of honour that is far more than what I was taught, and continue so much to hear, even till today? I kind of felt a little vindicated and reminded that bringing the honour-shame dynamics of culture and Scripture to light, is not promoting a new or cultural ’strange’ doctrine, but is just returning to what Christians of the past knew far more about than what we now do, and was ’normal’ to them.

Is it important to recognise the guilt we have for breaking God’s law? Yes. But emphasising this in a way that separates or neglects the wider and deeper context in which the guilt sits—dishonouring God Himself—robs the Bible of its greater message and the gospel of its greater story, strength, and  significance. It’s like giving a specific examination of the architecture of the wonderful stained-glass windows of a Cathedral and failing to realise that there is a full grand magnificient Cathedral building that they are a part of.

Keeping the main thing, the main thing.

Like the prophet Nathan, my Grandmother knew that the main thing—and the first thing—to be addressed in our walk with God is not the obedience or disobedience, but the honour and dishonour dynamics of giving glory to God. When in 2 Samuel 12 Nathan confronted King David about his sin, Nathan three times used honour language of (despised the Word of the Lord, despised Me [God], scorned/contempt) and didn’t once refer to David’s sin as disobedience (though murder and adultery are clearly incidents of disobeying God’s law). Nathan went to the crux of the matter which was the bigger issue of dishonouring, (despising, scorning) God and God’s Word. 

Obedience will always follow true heart honour, and disobedience is always a result of heart-level dishonour. It is true that outward obedience can occur without heart allegiance and honour; it can be empty form and ritual for the eyes of people…but true heart honour will not ever occur without obedience from the heart. It’s the same principle of how faith without works is dead (James 2:26). Works doesn’t produce faith, but profession of faith in God without evidence/fruit of works is not real faith in God at all. Without the fruit of outward works or righteousness, there is no proof of inward heart faith. 

The fruit is important, but the root from where the fruit comes, is more important.

Works are important, but the faith from where the works come, is more important. 

Outward obedience is important, but the heart honour from where the obedience comes, is more important.

When I found these papers of my Grandmother’s and read them I was both really sad and really glad. I was sad that I can’t sit down with her and discuss this further. But I am glad to have found them, and have her teach me and assist me in my current research, ministry and walk with God as I read what she wrote. I thank God for the wonderful gift and privilege of having all my grandparents being strong Christians in a long line of Christian heritage, and I thank God for finding these papers. 

I am spurred on by her legacy to continue to teach and alert the church of the current era to re-discover what previous generations seemed to more clearly understand and prioritise in their desire to make sure their lives brought glory and honour to the Lord.

'In Plain Sight': hidden honour in the pages of our Bible - Proverbs 29:25

Recently when my husband was preparing to preach on trusting God from Proverbs 29:25, I was prompted to actually look a bit more deeply into the verse. I was shocked at what I discovered…shocked in a good way because of the much bigger meaning I realised this verse had, and shocked in a sad way to realise once again how much our loss of recognition and understanding of honour and shame dynamics is robbing us of the richness and truth of Scripture. Meaning is getting lost in translation, and maybe that’s because translators are not thinking in honour and shame terms as much as needed …and then commentaries, and books and teaching that follows often also misses the depth of meaning.

I thought I would share with you some of my journey of what I discovered.

As we dig deeper on this verse, I hope you will also see how it helps us head higher in our levels of praise and thankfulness and joy of what God has given us through Christ.

The verse

Here it is in the popular ESV translation

"The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe"

Other Translations

Sometimes reading a verse in other translations helps us gain a greater context of the meaning. It definitely causes me to dig deeper to see what justification a particular translation has for translating a word/s a certain way.

So here are some of the alternative translations giving some clearer and surprising insights to the meaning:

NASB

The fear of man brings a snare, But one who trusts in the LORD will be protected.

NASB 1995

The fear of man brings a snare, But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.

Legacy Standard Bible 

Trembling before man brings a snare, But he who trusts in Yahweh will be set securely on high.

KJV

The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.

Amplified

The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in and puts his confidence in the LORD will be exalted and safe.

CEV

Don't fall into the trap of being a coward--trust the LORD, and you will be safe.

GNT

It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the LORD, you are safe. 

NET

The fear of people becomes a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD will be set on high.

Geneva Bible of 1587

The feare of man bringeth a snare: but he that trusteth in the Lord, shalbe exalted.

Bishops' Bible of 1568

He that feareth men shall haue a fall: but who so putteth his trust in the Lorde, is without daunger.

Coverdale Bible of 1535

He that feareth men, shal haue a fall: but who so putteth his trust in the LORDE, shal come to honor.

When we look at this verse in other translations we begin to see how that the real meaning is more than what appears on the surface. 

Expanding the Understanding

It is interesting that the oldest English translation listed on Biblehub.com translates the word which in most of our bibles that reads ’safe’, as: ‘come to honour'

This brings the context of this verse out of an issue of earthly physical protection to a context of relational and eternal status security protection. It’s easy for us to often view Scripture on a physical level and miss the honour and relational level. Some translations more literally translate the word as ’set on high’. But it is very interesting that centuries ago the understanding of that was ‘honour’.

So let’s look a little more at this verse:

The fear of man is a fear not just of a physical entity in the shape of a person, but the fear of what that person will think about you, and thus then maybe also do to you or your reputation (honour). But seeking to please people out of fear of what they will think of you is an illusion of refuge. It pretends that prioritising what others will think, and being worried about pleasing people, will offer protection from rejection, or disappointment, or being ignored, or gossipped about, or being shamed, or mocked, or thought less of, or being blamed for disharmony.

It looks like the path to significance in the eyes of people, security from their negative and painful responses, to being well-thought-of, and being liked, accepted, welcomed, and respected. It looks like the path to avoiding shame and maintaining or gaining honour and glory in the eyes of those around us. 

But illusions are never the real thing. 

They appear to promise what we want, what we hunger for, but eventually disappoint and don’t deliver. They are a deception. And that deception might appear to relieve momentary possible discomfort of disapproval from people, but it will build an even greater dangerous appetite for false honour and respect, that will eventually crumble and crush you. Deception will always promise life and deliver death. It is a trap, a snare and a dangerous deception.

Thus the Proverb’s wisdom warns against it and alerts us to its danger. So we should look out for it. It often impacts how people make decisions at all levels of life and society. It impacts how you and I can make decisions if we are not careful. 

Our sinful tendency is to seek our own good and glory by our own wisdom. Thus we are all vulnerable, unless we first find our honour vertically from God and give our honour vertically to God, instead of horizontally with people. We must be careful not to exchange the glory of the Creator with the created, as to do so is dangerous and even damning (Romans 1). 

However, the Proverb also has a second part that brings a contrast and good news.

When we trust in the Lord instead of fearing people, instead of a trap or snare or danger, there is an assurance and promise of safety. 

But do we take the time to think clearly about what this safety involves? 

The Hebrew word here has a consequential meaning by implication, of safety. But its actual meaning is to ’set on high’. And in many other places it is used in the Old Testament it is translated into English as ‘lifted’ or ‘exalted’ or ‘high’. Again with our Western minds we can quickly jump to a physcial context of something being out of reach and thus safe. And that could be part of it, but this is more than that. This is a context of being exalted. This is not just a physical position of safety from a physical trap, but relational safety from a relational trap of being more concerned about horizontal relationships with people rather than our vertical relationship with God.

Many take the concept of safety as nothing bad will happen to me on this earth, like injury or disability or poverty or home invasion or assault. I was surprised to read many of the Bible Commentaries that took this to mean safe from malice and wicked acts and anger of people.

However, its true meaning is more relational than physical. The issue about ‘fearing people’ is about our relationship with them and their attitude towards us before any action towards us. There might not be any ’sticks and stones’ physical damage to us, but we can still be controlled by fear of what attitude people will have towards us. We want to be in a position of honour in the eyes of others. 

The honour desire itself is not our core problem. We were made to seek honour and its not wrong to seek honour (Romans 2:7). The book ‘Glory Hunger’ is a great start to understanding this more. Our problem is we are prone to seek it horizontally from people instead of ‘vertically’ from God. 

So this proverb warns us about seeking to be in a place of honour in the eyes of people and fearing loss of ‘face’ or  loss of ‘honour’ in the eyes of people. We are encouraged instead to aspire to find it elsewhere…in trusting in God who gives honour that is safe, secure, sealed for eternity, because it is ’set on high’. And thus in that honour, we are ’safe’.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary captures some of these nuances and links to the dynamics of honour and shame, when he explains that this verse is about a contrast, and salvation from the snare of being ashamed to known as a Christian. 

He says:

29:25. "Many are ashamed to own Christ now; and he will not own them in the day of judgment. But he that trusts in the Lord will be saved from this snare.”

Yet, I would suggest, this is not just about being safe by being prevented from the punishment God will bring if we are ashamed of Christ in our fearing of people. But this is about an awareness and confidence of the honour that we can rest in when we trust in God for the fulfilment of our desire for acceptance, love, welcome, value and belonging. 

When we fear shame before people, we fear being mocked or disregarded or excluded or persecuted or put low. But to trust God is to put ourselves into the care of the one who is the highest and can thus give us the place and position of acceptance and honour which cannot be surpassed or taken down. To be saved from the temptation of being ashamed of Christ, comes from being assured of far greater honour instead. 

Remember we are seated with Christ in heavenly places, at the right hand of the Father. No place is higher than where God dwells in full glory and honour.

 

ANZAC day and the honour of 'remembering'

Today is ANZAC day in Australia.

It’s a day of ‘remembrance’.

Even though we are living overseas, the 25th April is a day we remember what so many men and women from Australia and New Zealand sacrificed in the trenches of war to gift us freedoms we have today. In fact at one point here in Botswana the Aussies and the Kiwis would get together and have a dawn service.

This year the RSL and Australian schools conducted a ’Schools Remember ANZAC Commemoration Competition’ which was an art competition featured on ‘A Current Affair'.

We also remember ANZACs every time we eat and share the delicious ANZAC biscuits that my husband makes and everyone loves! Originally apparently called ’soldier biscuits’ and usually made as a slab where bits were broken off as needed. They were made without eggs so they would last the journey to the soldiers. Some like them crunchy and some like them chewy.

However, in following on from the previous blogpost about the thief on the cross wanting Jesus to ‘remember’ him, ANZAC day is a good time to once again think about the honour context of ‘remembering’. 

To remember is to respect, because to remember is to take the time to allocate time in your mind and thoughts, and shows that the matter or person being remembered is thus of importance and value and significance. To remember is to acknowledge the value of something or someone of worth. It is to give honour and place. Thus in Proverbs 3:5,6 we are told to ‘acknowledge’ God in all our ways - to remember to give Him priority in our thoughts and considerations and attribute right honour to Him that should come before and above everything else. We are not to go along in our own ideas and undertanding and forget about God, and what He says, what He wants, what He is planning, that His character is love and goodness and faithfulness, that He sees and knows etc..

We all crave and desire to be valued as it signifies that we are loved; that we matter. It shows that we were made not to be self-sufficient individuals but to live in inter-dependant community and ultimately dependant on the one to whom we matter the most - God.

The motto of ANZAC day is ‘lest we forget’. This is not talking about a lapse of memory but a decision not to pay attention, not to treat as important, not to value properly. When we forget in this way, we disregard. To disregard is to disrespect, attribute no worth or value, and ultimately despise. It’s important not to ‘forget’ but to ‘remember’.

As we consider these nuances of meaning in the word and concept of ‘remembering’, there are also many ways in which we can further learn about our honour relationship with God and our functioning on this earth, when we think about it in terms of remembering and how Scripture talks about ‘remembering’…When we consider the concept of ‘remembering’ in terms of honour, we grow our understanding of being in relationship with God through Christ.

My ESV concordance says the word occurs over 200 times in Scripture but let me pick up on just a sample that might help to expand our understanding and appreciation of the meaning this word brings to us:

1.. God remembers that we are dust. God honours us in not expecting from us more than who he created us to be and to do as human beings dependant on Him. He doesn’t expect us to be God or to be someone different from who you or I are (not as an excuse for sinfulness, but in our legitimate design as individuals who are human and with diverse talents and abilities, weaknesses, frailties, and limitations.). Psalm 103:14

2. God will remember our sins no more when He forgives them. Isaiah 43:25 Hebrews 8:12

3. Jesus promised the thief that he would remember him for welcomed entry to His eternal Kingdom of Paradise. Luke 23:42 

4. To enter eternal death begins with God saying ‘depart from me I never knew you’ - no remembering of any relationship whatsoever.

5. Remember your creator in the days of your youth. Acknowledge God and give Him rightful place even from a young age. Ecc 12:1

6. God remembers his covenant and the evidence of that is a rainbow in the clouds after rain -  God is faithful and honours his word, his covenant promise. Genesis 9:15, 16

7. God told Moses that He was to be remembered throughout all generations. To honour God means not ignoring Him or forgetting Him or disregarding Him from the place he should have in our lives and the lives of the generations to follow. We are to be an example and teach the next generations what it means to honour God. Exodus 3:15

8. Remember it is God who gives you the strength to work and make money - God should get the glory and honour for what he has given us Deuteronomy 8:18

9. The people did not remember the Lord and all He had done for them. Judges 8:34  We should learn from people of the past and how easy it is to fail to put God in His rightful place in our lives and to keep Him and His will as the No. 1 priority. It takes intentional thought and decision.

10. Hannah asked God to remember her and give her a son - to grant her relief from the shame of childlessness and grant her the honour of having a child. 1 Samuel 1:11

11, David asked that God remember him and not turn His face away - in other words he is asking that God would not reject him and thus give him shame instead of honour. 2 Chron 6:42

12. The Psalmist wants God’s name to be remembered…to be praised - thus he wants God name to be exalted and honoured. Psalm 49:17 There is a lot of ‘remembering’ going on in the Psalms, which prompts us to be reminded that songs we sing are a place to be sure to ‘remember’ the Lord and give Him the rightful place of honour in our lives. They are also filled with requests for God to not forget His children. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit had not yet been given as He was on the Day of Pentecost and so there was not the same confidence that we can have today if we are born again that God will not forget us, as we are sealed with the Holy Spirit for the Day of Redemption (Ephesians 4:30).

13. A day is coming when the things that shamed us on this earth will be remembered no more - they will be gone and have no value or importance or valid voice, so we don’t have to fear. Eternal honour is coming in place of earthly shame.  Isaiah 54:4

14. Ezekiel 16:43, 60, 61 - because God’s people did not remember their shame as they should have, God would deal with them with punishment. That might not immediately make sense and it might sound like we should honour our shame! However, I would suggest it is saying we need to give God the honour we should by putting correct value assessment on our sin - the value assessment that God says sin is disgraceful and unacceptable. They did not honour the seriousness of sin before a Holy God. They did not fear God as they should have.

15. Mark 14: 72  When the rooster crowed, Peter remembered what Jesus had said and went and wept bitterly. He remembered - he gave thought to what Jesus had said and thus what his actions meant in the light of what Jesus had said. The fact that he wept bitterly shows that he was grieved that as he gave value and honour to Jesus and Jesus’ words he realised how far short he came, how much of a failure he was. He only would have wept bitterly if he thought Jesus was worthy of his love and honour and he had failed to give that love and honour.

16.  We are to remember the words of Jesus, whether its His words telling us "it is better to give than receive" or anything else he said. To remember is to value and honour his words enough to seek to recall them and then to act in accordance with them. Acts 20:35

17. We are to remember the poor - Galatians 2:10 - to remember the poor is not to merely have a passing thought about them, but to prioritise them in our time and money, to give them honour, and not just be self-honour seeking.

18. We are to remember what we were as rejected and separated from God. We do this, not to honour what we were, but to give consideration and thought to what we have been saved from, and thus ‘remember’ and honour God as the giver of the great a gift we have been given in our salvation. To forget all that is to disregard what it cost Christ to gain our free salvation. Ephesians 2:11,12

19. To remember tears, is to value the suffering of others, to show you care about others and the pain and difficulties of others. It is to weep with those who weep. It shows thought outside of ourselves by giving honour to the pain in the lives of others. 2 Timothy 1:4

20. Interestingly the final mention of this word ‘remember' is in Revelation 18:5 and is a somber warning that while God will not remember our sins anymore if they have been paid for and forgiven in Christ, he will remember our sins if they are not forgiven. They will not be overlooked or ignored. They will be given the significance they deserve, the significance of all that God rejects and can never tolerate. 

We are left with a final challenge and reminder, that while we are so blessed in Christ with welcome into heaven where Christ will ‘remember’ us as His own and our sins will be remembered no more and no longer as counted significant against us...there are however, millions for whom God will not and cannot forget their sin when it comes to judgement day. Let us go and share the gospel good news with them so that their position in Christ will be known and ‘remembered’ for eternal life with God forever, rather than their sins being ‘remembered’ for eternal shame and separation from God.