Archive - 2025

Isaiah’s servant songs (chs. 41-54) along with the gospel of John have stood throughout my life as consistent sources of inspiration, orientation and re-orientation. These poems describe and prophesy the way of Yahweh’s servant. The servant’s profile that develops throughout finds fulfillment in Isaiah’s ministry, Israel as God’s people, righteous ones, and especially the Messiah.

Submission in the kingdom of God stands for more than a servant’s compliance to his master’s commands. Submission means being owned together as a family by the Redeemer (i.e. redemptive family)—and blessing others. Human ownership of other humans de-humanizes and brings destruction. The Creator owning His image bearers brings freedom and fulfillment.

The Hebrew word for “redeemer” reflects the concept of kinsman redeemer. A kinsman redeemer’s role in the Old Testament was to help the family (i.e. tribe) recover its losses of various kinds: human, judicial, economic, property, and with Yahweh’s help, national and spiritual losses (The IVP Bible Background Commentary, OT, 279).

One way that our individualistic culture stunts our imagination involves our understanding and application of redemption. We view through a personal lens things like property, rights, finances, salvation, and spiritual growth. Just consider the different feel for us of saying redemptive family property instead of “personal” property (also redemptive family vs. “personal” rights, finances, salvation, and spiritual growth). Yet this reflects the heart of the good news from the beginning through the Servant Songs and the New Testament—we are not our own but bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). God’s ownership of our lives means that we can live as redemptive family.

As we care for others, let’s remember how stewardship of our own servanthood involves right belonging to our Master (Creator and Father) and His redemptive family.

Hebrews 4:1–11 reflects on rest for God’s people, or the lack thereof—depending on obedience or disobedience to His word, which is described in the following verses:

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we have an account to give (vv 12–13).

Those disobedient to His word are “rest-less,” and those obedient “rest-full,” receiving His grace and mercy (vv 14–16). Let’s turn to two Old Testament prophets to help us discern our response to His word as connected to our rest or lack of it.

“By human standards, Jeroboam II was an unqualified success” as the 13^th king of Israel—militarily and economically, taking back territory not held since David’s time (The Revell Bible Dictionary)—but “he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh” during his 41-year reign (2 Kings 14:24).

One prophet from the north (Israel) spoke of favor in restoring their borders (2 Kgs 14:25). Another prophet from the south (Judah) condemned Israel’s boast of this expansion by their own strength, declaring instead a coming oppression by another nation within the very borders being restored. Amos is the second prophet, a shepherd from the south who obeyed the word of Yahweh by leaving the pasture to prophesy against Israel, declaring the demise of powerful King Jeroboam II (Amos 6:13–14; 7:10–11). When pressured by the king’s priest to flee, he instead remained and obeyed the word of Yahweh (vv 12–16). Jonah is the first prophet, the Israelite who spoke of his country’s expansion. His story also tells how the word of Yahweh came to him, but he fled from God’s presence. Even after miraculous rescue from death, his offense persisted over Yahweh’s lovingkindness toward Assyria, the enemy nation that would destroy Jonah’s country despite their bigger borders (Jonah 1:1–3; 4:1–3).

True rest depends on whether we obey Yahweh’s word, even when this means love for our enemies and His judgment of His people. A remnant of Yahweh’s people remained throughout the Old and New Testaments, and still does today in Jesus’ kingdom. May we ourselves enter His rest and invite others to keep doing the same. “Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall into the same example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:11).

PSALM 127 (LSB)

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.

1 Unless Yahweh builds the house,

They labor in vain who build it;

Unless Yahweh watches the city,

The watchman keeps awake in vain.

2 It is in vain that you rise up early,

That you sit out late,

O you who eat the bread of painful labors;

For in this manner, He gives sleep to His beloved.

3 Behold, children are an inheritance of Yahweh,

The fruit of the womb is a reward.

4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,

So are the children of one’s youth.

5 How blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them;

They will not be ashamed

When they speak with enemies in the gate.

When it comes to Christmas gifts, a “family gift” means something special. First, we must decide who unwraps it. Then there’s the matter of sharing in the gift itself, which might mean taking turns or coordinating everyone’s participation at the same time, depending on the nature of the item. In these ways, receiving a family gift  involves a bit more complexity than an individual gift. As a father giving the family gift, I delight in the relational experience that surrounds its enjoyment.

This brings to mind our Father’s delight in giving good gifts to His family (James 1:17). Our “receivement” as a group may involve some complexity, like its opening and how we will share in it together, but the reward is greater than the gift itself—a sense of our Father’s delight and the joy of relational connection.

I think of Psalm 127 as a “receivement” Psalm. While in contrast to achievement, our posture is not passive. Rather, the psalmist portrays a kind of trusting group participation. For example, building a house involves a team of workers. How might their efforts reflect a trusting participation? If this is a physical house, like the temple that Solomon built, even with all the preparation and planning that went into it, only Yahweh Himself could fill the house with His presence (1 Kings 8:10–11). If the house refers to building a people, like the house of Israel (a people of His pasture, Ps 100:3), their participation of hearing and obeying depends upon the One who calls them: “It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves” (Ps 100:3).

Consider the next example in Psalm 127 of a watchman guarding a city. The group of those watching and those living in the city depended on a coordinated communication system to sound the alarm when facing outside threats. Yet without Yahweh’s protection also extending over the unseen spiritual conflicts and the ultimate reality of His sovereignty, “the watchman keeps awake in vain” (v 1b).

The theme of vain effort continues with an illustration of the painful work of farming that yields food for eating. Long and strenuous days, even with sacrificing sleep, must wait upon the Creator’s hand at work in the seeds and soil, roots and shoots, under the sun and clouds that withhold or release rain. Furthermore, sleep itself involves the trusting participation of getting ready for bed, but entering into sleep comes as a loving gift from our Father (v 2b).

The final example features children, received through intimate participation of more than one—man and woman in His image—trusting for the miracle of a new image bearer of God. These true family gifts of children represent reward, inheritance, strength, and protection from enemies.

Such is the nature of receiving from Him together. As His redemptive family, may our own trusting participation in His care for His sheep follow His calling and leading as our Good Shepherd—that we might not care in vain. True safety only comes from Him, as does true food and rest. By supporting His children, may we gain glimpses of our redemptive family where heaven and the nations on earth meet.

May such “receivement” continue to characterize our trusting participation!

Redemptive family in His pasture—Reality #1: We belong to Him . . . together!

“Belongingness” develops in His pasture system—a system that consists of a barn (or sheepfold, see John 10:1) and the pastures of our lives (our households, jobs, schools, communities, friendships, hobbies, hardships, etc.). This poem below expresses well the shalom of our Good Shepherd’s pasture system:

“Sabbaths 2014 – V” by Wendell Berry (from the book, A Small Porch)
The silence of the barn at evening,
when the shepherd draws shut the door
and starts home for the night, is heavenly,
for it says almost aloud that every lamb
is found, every ewe has found her lamb
and is feeding, and is content.

There is another of the barn’s silences
that is heavenly also, for it says
that the ewes and their young ones now
are gone from it to new pasture,
the now-green, the first-grown grass
of the spring, and they are delighted,
the shepherd delighted with their delight.

As I think about the opportunity to be Redemptive family in His pasture!, the first stanza represents the safety of the barn (or sheepfold). The “evening” marks a new beginning in our belonging—a new creation day patterned like the first days of creation (evening and morning, see Genesis 1:5). The “shut” door provides us security in belonging to Him together. The “silence” that is “heavenly” reflects the holiness permeating the atmosphere. That “every lamb is found” speaks to being known by name, echoed in the connection between “ewe” and “her lamb.” Belonging in the barn means “feeding,” being nourished and “content.” Gratitude characterizes our response to such a joyful reality of belonging to Him together in the barn.

Then we encounter a second stanza which takes us beyond the barn, which is “heavenly also”—”from it to new pasture, the now-green, the first-grown grass of the spring.” The secure attachment from the barn between “the ewes and their young ones” helps us freely follow Him together into newness of life, which we can hold out as hope to others we meet with in the pastures of our lives. Belonging to Him together exemplifies double “delight”—His and ours!

Dr. Jim Wilder (neurotheologian and ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene) and Michel Hendricks highlight this process of joyful belonging (from the book, The Other Half of Church: Christian Community, Brain Science, and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation):

“Increasing joy will involve improving our relational skills, training our brain, and getting involved in tightly bonded community . . . When our bodies can feel the glow of Jesus’ face shining on us, our joy capacity grows. As our joy grows, our faces shine on each other, which makes other people feel joy. When we throw in some intentional practices to magnify joy, we are on the way to creating a high-joy community.”

May we experience in our lives “a high-joy community”—the reality of belonging to Him together as Redemptive family in His pasture!