Abraham and Moses: Lessons from Two Great Heroes of Faith

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Heb 11:1-2 

The Old Testament Writer as merely a Reporter or Messenger of God

I know it is in David’s character that we famously meet him craving for his God ‘As the hart panteth after the water brooks’, but I want to propose that even Abraham and Moses did so, though from reading their accounts in the Old Testament, one would never think so. There they are silent, and they don’t publish to the whole world the matters of their hearts as David famously did in his psalms. Therefore we are more conversant with the latter than we are with the rest of the Old Testament prophets, except perhaps Solomon. These two were not only kings in Israel, but even more important they were also poets and writers, and to be a poet, singer or writer is to be ‘a noise maker’, for by their nature they cannot be shut up! That is why governments all over the world hate them, and kill them.

But it wasn’t so for Abraham. Apparently he didn’t (in his tongue) possess ‘the pen of a ready writer.’ So in Old Testament Abraham is told to leave his father’s land by God… and he leaves. Likewise he is told to sacrifice his son and ‘automatically’ he obeys… thus we see him in a figure only, but we don’t really see his heart. That is left to the New Testament writers to shed light for us on those matters. And it is from them that we get glimpses of Abraham and Moses strong cravings for their God. In the Old Testament Moses is a reporter per excellence (as the writer of the Pentateuch) and as a good writer, he doesn’t let his feelings interfere with his reporting. Again it is the New Testament writers who go ‘behind the scene’ to reveal to us the state of Moses’ heart. Without them, Abraham and Moses should never have appeared to us as real humans, but as stock characters, allegories or archetypes.

 The Shadow and the Reality: The examples of Abraham and Moses as ‘called out’ Ones

It is essentially from Paul that we receive a hint of Abraham’s true heart, where, in six heavy words, he describes Abraham’s conflict as consisting of one ‘Who against hope believed in hope’. And so at last we learn that Abraham made a tough decision when he decided to leave Mesopotamia as God had commanded him for a new land. And isn’t that always the case, whether one is getting into ministry, or whether one is getting saved?

 

And so as the Old Testament writer reports about Abraham wandering in the vast Canaan country with his wealth of animals, the Hebrews writer knew what Abraham’s longing was for all along: ‘For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God’ (Heb 11:10).  

 We are Strangers and Pilgrims in this World

It is especially in the book of Hebrews that the whole heart of Abraham is laid bare for us to see. For it is here that we see his great faith, his great vision, and his great patience, as it is written, ‘These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city’ (Heb 11:13-16).  And so as the Old Testament writer’s vision ended with The Promised Land, the New Testament writer saw something larger than that, he saw heaven, ‘To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you’ (1Pe 1:4).

Likewise Moses’ heart is opened fully for us only in the New Testament book of Hebrews as it is written: ‘By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible’ (Heb 11:24-27). And so, at last, we comprehend how an enlightened man like Moses can be content for forty years to be a plain shepherd in a desolate desert, and not why he should be a prince in a Pharaoh’s palace in rich Egypt.

The happenings in this world do not seem to have had any hold on these prophets. Their whole life and business was about their God only. O that we should have such a burning passion for our missions in this life!

Is it possible for us in our modern age to embody the spirit of being merely sojourners and pilgrims here on this earth?

I think we can. For even in the New Testament that spirit of being citizens of heaven but strangers in this world is still clearly spelt.

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Joh 15:19  

I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Joh 17:14 

 

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Joh 17:15-16   

 

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1Jn 2:15-17  

In the End it is the Word of God which Counts

So, I ask myself, and you probably ask yourself, can we, in our modern era, exhibit such passion, such single mindedness, and such craving for our God as these two great prophets of God?

What distracts us?

Where do our fears come from?

May we be encouraged indeed, and God grant us the courage to imitate these prophets, or even more, to imitate Christ himself, the author and captain of our faith, now and forever more. Amen.

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? Mat 6:27 

Fret not thyself – Psalm 37

Who doesn’t worry?

Life, in its mysterious ways, raises many questions, and we meet them right from childhood. And the tragedy is that as life progresses and expands, so does the mind, and so are the questions it throws in one’s path, until one is reluctantly forced to concede that what the Preacher wrote a long time ago is indeed true, that, ‘in much wisdom is much grief.’ Where is this road going? What lies ahead? Will it bring me home or will I be eaten by a lion? And half the time these questions arise, they always presuppose something worse going to happen… and so not knowing exactly what, therefore we worry! Are you married? And how did you feel on the night preceding your big day? Did you sleep?

And it is interesting that David, perhaps the chiefest ‘worrier’ of all time should have written a psalm asking us not to fret! For about a third of his psalms ring with a lone voice crying to God to deliver him from his enemies, with Saul being the single greatest threat to his life, and so much so that he had been very certain that one day he would die at the hand of Saul! And so we know that much from it being an encouragement to us, but chiefly it was a testimony and encouragement to David himself, as it is written, ‘but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.’

 We worry, and half of our lives is taken up by it, about job, love, sex, food, cloth, marriage, death and life in general. We worry. We are terribly insecure. And worrying does not even listen to reason. It just rears its head, uninvited, and like a car with a drunken driver, it runs wild. But in the end we achieve nothing really by worrying, except getting sapped. Asaph worried. It depressed him. Others were getting rich while he was getting poorer. Asaph almost lost his faith. Are you anywhere near that at present? Please don’t – find out what Asaph did (Psalm 73).

David was always in the mire, and mud always almost covered him. Job’s life had almost come to an end – but not his worrying. Even being in good health does not shield one from worrying. Job’s friends’ worrying and descent into ‘miserable comforters’ happened without their knowledge… Adam worried… he fenced, he threw punches at himself… yet one cannot fail to notice (or even fear!) at the almost grand calmness of Eve… The disciples of Jesus worried… Martha worried… and Mary… ‘Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. ’ Elijah worried…and he didn’t even remember Mt. Carmel… and which prophet didn’t worry? What about old Moses? Even the entourage in the wilderness was a worried one… what of the spices and the garlic onions which they left behind in Egypt? And what of the men who made them feel like grasshoppers? And their worry naturally morphed into bitterness… and heavy death followed thereafter. Worrying kills completely eventually. A lot of stroke victims can testify of the worries which plagued them just before they lost consciousness…

Drugs are always a Poor antidote to Worrying

We take drugs to kill worry… but how long does the worrying sleep? They make us sick instead… and being sober and in a hospital bed alone and not in a bar room with all that din… to be absolutely sober and alone and in a hospital ward… you would think worrying might multiply but the opposite actually happens…it is the sudden clarity of ‘all things’ which actually scares! Even the silent groanings of other patients in the room turns the whole world upside down… worrying is terrible… But sometimes not worrying is even worse!

Having a clear Perspective on all Matters of Living will shield one from Unnecessary Worrying

Allow yourself a clear perspective, some things change, the body changes, slowness will set in, interest will dim… sometimes our worries happen because we refuse to accept the inevitable… at above fifty things will certainly begin to decline… one can’t do one hundred laps now whereas while young it seemed like a child’s play… So it is better for one to have a proper perspective especially on those small matters of living and which suddenly can provoke so much worrying… Change happens, or it will certainly happen sooner or later! Even Paul who used to preach standing up the whole night knew when his time was up… Even Abraham and Isaac and Jacob… perspective didn’t escape them… as they started to put their houses in order while they were still alive… They were ready for any eventuality, but we have an even greater urgency now than them, as it is written, ‘Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh’ (Mat 25:13). 

Praising God works Magic, And the Devil Hates It!

Yes, praise God, and scare the devil! And the worrying will inevitably leave you alone. The devil just hates it. Or convert your worrying into a creative pursuit… our mom’s knew this better…it is why they never stopped knitting even when they were attending a funeral! And it is why they live long years… way, way long after men have gone to sleep. Or write your worries down. Our thoughts can get jumbled… writing…keeping a journal … helps one trap his thoughts …and worries, and it helps one put one’s life in proper perspective. It is scary but true…one can be worried without knowing they are actually worried…but writing brings that to an end. And so ‘LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.’ 

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Why Human Traditions Are So Popular

 

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers. 1Pe 1:18 

 

Humility is alien to human traditions

Human traditions are popular because they appeal to our primeval instincts… the urge to bully, to fight, to conquer and subjugate. Traditions abhor weaknesses especially in men, instead they heap praises on a raw fighter, a natural born brute, a ‘war machine’, and self-made man (See Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe).

 

In a traditional set up the end justifies the means – there are no moral scruples to make a man guilty. But Jesus life, character and teachings are not so inspiring to a traditionalist. Who forgives his enemies? And who can be led to his death without a fight? And who can die for other people? These are the characteristics of a weak person or a fool, and not a ‘strong’ person. And so how hard it becomes for a purely natural man to understand Christian humility because well, it is not natural! But humility, like salvation, is a gift from God.

 

Colonialism and its aftermath

By nature we aspire to the highest forms of living. We want the best, and royalty is the highest state of living we know here on earth (hence the world's fixation with the British royalty lives!) White missionaries from Europe did a great service in bringing us Christ and God. But they also brought us their languages, their manners and their cultures. The aftermath is that these left our forefathers with a deeply ingrained mark of inferiority concerning our own cultures; while we perceived everything white as being superior. And up to this day these beliefs persist much to our own detriment (See Black Skins, White Masks, and The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon). We became angry yes (and rightly so!) but our incessant anger has only become pervasive, extending quite insidiously not only to our own selves, but to everyone and every statement we regard as ‘demeaning’ to our Black culture. It is an anger which has not only exploded inside us, but it has also come out and burnt everything we deemed as beautiful once, including our own skins... And so many even today cannot quite separate the white man’s God from the white man’s colonialism. For many, they simply threw out the baby and the bath water, and they shut their doors!

 

But let us never forget the debt we owe to the missionaries who left the comforts of their distant homes to come and settle amongst us, to preach Christ to us, to educate us, and the schools and the hospitals they built and left for us and which continue to shine forth as beacons of hope… yes let us remember them, and let us pray for them and their nations at all times. To forget that is simply to be ungrateful, and it is utterly unchristian. And shall we forget our own? No, God forbid! And so for those who are there at present, and for those who were there before, we salute you all in Jesus name! (Heb 6:10).    

 

Christianity is for the poor in spirit

And so, at heart, Christianity is for the brokenhearted (Isa 61:1), for those who feel most their own helplessness, their own worthlessness, those who are without strength, those who have come from the cold, the dejected and the failures of this life. Christ is truly a refuge for them. And in Christ we find a resting place. Are you at a place like that at present, dear friend? In Christ, you are truly home. Welcome, you have nothing to lose but your ashes…

 

It is why in Africa Christianity is thriving, because here we can feel most our own ‘under development’ whereas the most developed countries of Europe feel absolutely no need for a savior… And so we get to understand why Christ said it is very hard for a rich man to be saved… And so too we understand why Jesus told the Jews that publicans and prostitutes were on their way to heaven before them (Mat 21:31).

 

For the Jew, a pure bred traditionalist, he had big issues with this Christ (as our own traditionalists do), because his birth was repulsive and not aristocratic, for his eating with sinners, and for dying on the cross, the ultimate symbol of humiliation for the proud Jew. And so Jesus wasn’t a savior to them but a failure, he lacked ambition and he wasn’t enterprising… and it is why, when a Jew prayed, he started with his own merits… (Luke 18:10-12).

 

But we, who are the downtrodden and rejected, feel greatly with Christ, ‘For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren’ (Heb 2:10-11). In Christ we have a kin. Do you? He can be your brother too, friend, your helper, and your every need, for ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’ Yes, listen keenly to that knock at your door tonight, for he is eagerly waiting for you to open…

 

 

Singlehood: Living the Hidden Life

Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. 1Co 7:27 

It is that subject which you will never hear being preached in church, unless it is on a wedding day, and where it is always mentioned in a most contemptuous way. Weddings or dowry celebrations are those places where a single person feels most lonely. The singles are usually derided, ridiculed and generally made a laughing stock. If you are single and you are invited to those places, you need to pack your sense of humor to the hilt, but if you don’t have it don’t go, because it will depress you.

But first let us admit the obvious: it is not normal, and the first instinct a person gets is that it is a rebellion! It doesn’t matter that it is scriptural, but tradition rules against it. Here in Africa it is usually placed in the same category of behaviors which are regarded as ‘western rot.’ And even today many church goers believe Solomon’s Song of Songs found its way in the Bible by mistake. How, they ask, a book containing salacious words like ‘kisses’, ‘breasts’, ‘thigh’ ‘bed’ and ‘sleep’ be included in God’s Most Holy Book? But thanks be to God. If the Bible were wholly a work of man’s own inspiration, all the characters in it would be angels! The information which we would miss from such a Bible would be staggering.

Celibacy is not Paul’s Original Thought

A lot of people assume celibacy came with Paul… but no, it is just that Paul, being celibate himself, devoted a whole chapter to it (He may have been married before in his earlier life, or he may have been widowed… but the Bible is not specific on this matter... And celibacy though synonymous with abstinence, but they do not exactly mean the same thing). In this letter Paul had been answering questions raised by the Christian congregation at Corinth concerning many topics, and celibacy is just one of them. So Paul gives that direction, but being very careful to differentiate between what is his own opinion and that ‘of commandment.’ And he begins by his own view: ‘It is good for a man not to touch a woman…’ The rest is an expansion on this theme, where he delineates the merits and demerits of the same, and which he sums up in the following statements, ‘For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that… Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called…for it is better to marry than to burn’ (1Co 7:1, 7, 20, 9b).

And so Paul lived what he preached, and the one thing which consumed him most was the return of Christ… For him, it was very imminent, and there was no time to waste on anything else in life, even rejoicing! ‘But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not’ (1Co 7:29-30).

‘As unknown, and yet well known’.

The life we live is an epistle not written with ink but with our lives, wrote the apostle… and yet (and for most) that life is very much hid with God in Christ, as he extolls elsewhere… (Col 3:1-30). We don’t see faith, but we know it is there, we don’t see hope, but we avow it, and we shall love, though it be but a rose full of thorns…

So we may feel like we never quite know Paul well, or Christ, or God…these we may feel them distant sometimes, as if something existing only in the periphery… and we may have lost that original fervor and power, but we pray we shall not lose so great a salvation… ‘which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?’ (Heb 2:3-4).

No, though we don’t conform to the traditions of this world, though we be ridiculed, though we be hated, maligned and regarded as old fashioned, but yet we shall not give up in ‘contending for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.’ As it is written, ‘We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed… As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things’ (2Co 4:8-9; 2Co 6:9-10). For to lose this is to lose everything, ‘But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul’ (Heb 10:39).  Paul fought a good fight, he finished the race, and he kept the faith, and shall we not fight a similar battle up to the end?

And so we passed through death into life… we forgot what we had known all our lives to embrace a life which no one had seen… We know Golgotha, and we know the garden and the empty tomb, but we shall not dwell here forever… we shall move on to Galilee now, for that’s where the new life really starts. So where have you been called to go? I know there is a wedding in Cana, and it is good, and we shall probably return there some day… ‘Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.’ 

The Good and the Bad in Traditions: Only Christ Can Really Set Free

they are all estranged from me through their idols. Eze 14:5b 

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Joh 8:36  

Traditions are good in that they bring order in society. That is always the aim. Without them what would ensue is chaos. And what they achieve is always for the benefit of the whole society. That is what our traditions did. They served their purposes (and they served it very well, for the good ones) - but that was only for their time, as scripture says, ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven’ (Ecc 3:1). 

We have now come very far, and we shall never go back again to where our forefathers were. There was The Old Testament and now is The New Testament, and the one was a shadow… a prefiguring of the lives we are living in at present… and yet the final is not even here yet. More changes are still to come.

Time is dynamic, and never static, and so is change, and so are our bodies, for one time we are babes, and then another time we are adults, and later still we grow old, we break, we die… we become dust.

Just like traditions.

But with the exception of one: God.

So has his claims been proven? Have they withstood the test of time?

Yes.

Why?

Because everything in history was driving towards this end - his story.

We came from him, and we shall always be restless until we go back to him.

Is this claim true? What has been the testimony of our lives?

I don’t know yours. But I know mine. And this is that testimony…

What I believed as a child

Even before I got saved there were certain beliefs which disturbed me, like that one cannot be rich in this world without cheating… or that a bright child carried the genes of his father, whereas a foolish one had the mind of his mother…

This was just one out of many… Which ones do you know and are still current?

I felt that ‘everybody’ made money the whole basis of education and living, but deep in my heart I felt this was not right... I felt a dissonance… a discrepancy… the stirring of a sour note… a jarring of conscience…

But I didn’t want to be different. And I didn’t want to be lonely. Rather I wanted to please all and be accepted by all. Which child doesn’t, Lord?

But the Child Spirit in Me Refused to Die!

There is much truth in Calvin’s observation that the grace of God is irresistible. I was only a child, but I felt heavily the darkness which was slowly encroaching on my life… and it made me very afraid.

But later I felt ashamed that I had allowed myself to ‘feel too much’ about these ‘very small’ things’! Why wouldn’t I agree with ‘everybody’ that they were right and I was wrong? But I grew up. And as an adult I forced myself not to ‘feel too much’ about ‘anything’. I concluded that ‘everybody’ was indeed right while I was wrong, and ‘everybody’ was ‘normal’ while I was abnormal. So now I became ‘normal’ like ‘everybody’, and I thought my life would be easy after that. But it had never been worse!

‘What had I done?’

That was the question that kept recurring in my mind. What I had done was to overturn the values which God had put in me as a child. And I hated the child spirit in me. I was an adult now, and doing certain things earned me respect among my peers, like lying, being angry, and stealing… But still I felt this was wrong! I felt false! And I felt greatly oppressed by this sort of double life and which I didn’t believe in in the least bit! This wasn’t me!

But I quickly reminded myself that I was now ‘normal’ like ‘everybody’. But it was a ‘normal’ which hurt and which was very painful. I felt a deep hatred for the society which had made me like this. And I felt even a heavier loathing for the God who had created me like this… why would I not feel ‘nothing’ instead of ‘feeling too much’? I became a cloud that was carried by a tempest. And I became a well without water.

Only the Truth of God can Set one Free

Do you, or have you ever felt something like that? Do you ever feel ashamed about what you believe to be right?

Do you feel that some traditions you profess are oppressive and are only holding you back from being your true self?

Do you value simplicity and authenticity?

Please don’t feel ashamed about it!

Does lying make you feel uncomfortable? Please it ought! And what of fornication, and stealing? Yes every evil thing should leave you feeling ashamed, because it is lying to the truth… and it is the sure way of digging oneself deeper into a bigger hole…

Being Different is not Always about Rebelliousness, but about Truth

If only parents would understand this!

But how shall they know it?

Preach to them prayerfully.

But if they still oppose you take comfort in his word.

‘Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword [division]’ (Mat 10:34). So Christ again says, ‘He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me’ (Mat 10:37).  

Right is right and wrong will always be wrong. These values will never change. If to choose Christ is to choose foolishness so be it…

And so Paul can count all things as loss compared to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus… And Peter can fall down at Jesus' knees and cry, ‘Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ And again, ‘the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.’ It is the child spirit which prompts one to say something like that, and don’t crush it! It is only a child spirit, and it is only God who gives it, and in strength he makes one feel like seven adults.

 

A Brief Survey of what it Meant to be a Man in the Traditional Life, and what it means Now

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. Mat 4:16  

And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. Luk 16:15  

 The definition of what constitutes a man is a long and tedious one when one is a traditionalist. But it is a very short one when one is a Christian, for then it can be summed up in only one verse: ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’ (2Co 5:17). 

The Heart of Darkness

Yes, some of our old traditions were really good. But few tended towards depravity, as any reader of literature books can testify (Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Fox’s White Mischief, Blixen’s Out of Africa). In short an eruption of violence (physical, moral and temperamental) ruled the past traditions of men, as even the Bible testifies:

‘This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness’ (Eph 4:17-19).  

‘For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries’ (1Pe 4:3). 

Typically a traditional man went to war to fight his enemies – and his enemies were other tribes… he ambushed them, he speared them to death, and lastly he stole their animals and women as spoils of war. These he took back to his tribe, where he was crowned as a warrior and a true man. He was then celebrated in long rituals lasting months or weeks (see chapter one of the book of Esther), where they indulged in eating, drunkenness, sexual orgies, and where they sacrificed to the fertility gods in dances and trances which sometimes bordered on the black magic (Kongi’s Harvest, Soyinka).

But then Christianity, the Great Social Upheaval of all Time, Arrived on the Scene, and it Continues to Annoy loyal Traditionalists by its Radical teachings

‘The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him’ (Joh 12:19).   

The traditions glorified outward strengths, but they knew little about the inner life… or the silences which speak louder than words. A man was praised for valour – but of the battles that raged inside his own heart he knew nothing about. Emotions awed them, and it would seem that was the preserve of witchdoctors. So whereas a man found nothing but praises from his fellow men ‘at the gate’, but at night and alone in his bed, voices which he could not discern condemned him to death! It is only Christianity with its heritage of education which has brought these things to light.

 It is no strange that those men died early. Anger killed them. And when they died it was on the sour note that they had been bewitched. A lot of the men actually blamed their wives for their death. Witchcraft was the bogey word for explaining all sorts of misfortunes, including emotional traumas. A witch doctor was a god, as the power of life and death was presumably vested in him.

A traditionalist might become a Christian, as some did, but he never quite relinquished his manly pride. And so typically he would be one person at church and a completely different person in his homestead.  ‘Come unto me all ye that labour...’ was church language, but to a stoic traditionalist that was an insult. Why should a man run to a fellow man (Jesus) for help? To love your enemy and to pray for him was insane. And not to revenge against your enemy was the preserve of Christian ‘foolishness’. These were some of the insults the Christian missionaries endured every day of their lives. The devil was unknown in these shores, and neither was the God of Abraham. His exploits among the gods of Egypt had not yet reached here. But thank God for the Bible! He is truly Ebenezer, for this far he has brought us!

The darkness described in the Bible is real. But so is the light… ‘he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound’ (Isa 61:1). 

·      ‘And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.’ 1Pe 1:25b. 

·      ‘Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life’ (Joh 8:12).  

·      ‘And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us’ (Act 17:26-27).   

·      ‘And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent’ (Act 17:30). 

·      And so from the beginning the gospel has found a ready home among the poor… among those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness… and where God has readily filled them all (Psa 107:9).

·      ‘But the anger of the Lord is toward the proud, the haughty and arrogant; (Pro 8:13). ‘Those that walk in pride he is able to abase’. Dan 4:30.

Precious friend, are you tired of all the traditional conventions competing for your attention in the world? ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,’ says Christ, ‘and I will give you rest.’ And ‘If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed’ (Joh 8:36). Let us pray: Lord I have tried to be a man by my own strength in all my life but in vain. Father, give me this rest I pray.

 

 

  

 HUMAN TRADITIONS VERSUS CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS

The radicalism of Christianity is its power… and without it, it is just another humanist creed – Part One

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Luk 14:26  

Something like a crisis of faith is what grips any new convert to the Christian religion…and the pull between the new traditions and one’s old traditions may sometimes grow so large as to resemble Jacob’s wrestling with God on River Jabbok…

But nevertheless Abraham’s unwavering type of faith is what God calls his followers to imitate… Abraham’s obedience was immediate and a complete severing with all his past. Abraham never again went back to his roots. And neither do we find him wistfully reminiscing about his old traditional life…

Rather we find an Abraham who is animated with a newfound hunger and longing… and almost gripped by a beatific vision for a new life which was far removed from that of his father’s traditional life… and so it is written,’By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God’ (Heb 11:8-10).  

The radicalism of Christianity is what gives it power… and it is what makes it unique… And so Abraham’s life (and of every believer) becomes like a movement which begins in a low note (in Egypt) but which rises eventually to a crescendo in the Promised Land…and where one wave of faith sweeps all unbelief to oblivion, and where one glimpse of glory shines a light into a thousand possibilities….

Abraham lived fully the New Testament life before we got here: ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’ (2Co 5:17). And ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth…’ (Joh 3:8). Abraham was never (at any time) left in doubt that a higher Being had acted…had spoken…and had chosen him. Have you felt anything like that lately? Then by God’s grace act! Go! The voice can’t be seen…but it can’t be doubted? That is God. Obey him instantly! Many have felt something like that before…like being on the cusp of a mighty change…but they let it fall to the ground; the music floated in the air ever so sweetly, but it got carried off by the wind… ‘It was a vision’ we say, or ‘I had a close call’, or ‘I felt something, so sweet, so urgent… but I feared I was about to lose my mind! I dismissed it…what if it showed in real life as a fact?’ The vision may go… but the conflict never does. It only surfaces again slowly in small pockets of remembrances…

I believe the climax of all unbelief will show itself eventually --- it is especially heightened just before one’s death and when it is particularly strident… I have seen a patient throw a blanket over their heads and bury themselves under it, screaming…and why? Because it is the resurfacing of that vision again, and because it is where madness and reality intersect in a whirlwind of mental maelstrom…but God forbid that we should ever reach there!

And so Abraham believed, and Abraham let the wind carry him because he was certain it was from God and that is why it was counted to him for righteousness… Or else he should never have gone anywhere if he had not acted or obeyed (his first instincts) first! So what are you afraid of? Start moving! Pray to him for courage and the one who says ‘and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out’ will answer you in due time.