There it was, in plain black and white, in unadorned speech: "Er, the firstborn of Judah, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; so He killed him."
This statement appears amidst the scores of names and genealogies in the first book of the Chronicles. There are many little jewels that stand out in those first few chapters, so yawn-inducing. "The prayer of Jabez" is the most powerful example, and little things that stick out in the lists of names so alien to us..."And they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them, for they cried out to God in the battle. He heeded their prayer, because they put their trust in Him....because the war was God's"...and a daughter of Ephraim, Sheerah, a strong woman who built three cities, in a Book so ignorantly called a chain to women.
But of all the things that softened my heart, there it was: "Er, the firstborn of Judah, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; so He killed him."
Some Christians were given a mind for apologetics as a theological practice and skill. And some were given minds for other gifts. In my bumbling attempts at apologetics, I'd tried to make the more scrutinized and accused pieces of Scripture become acceptable to a world that will never accept it, no matter how lucidly it is explained. Deeper in my motives, I was trying to make the world accept me as some great thinker of Christianity, perhaps the American C.S. Lewis, so that maybe they'd accept the Gospel.
How ridiculous. How idolatrous! I thought the world would accept the Gospel if it accepted me.
But there, the words "He killed him" in a Book where God striking down the wicked is not uncommon, freed me from apologetics, something I had no business handling. I could not make it look acceptable, gentle, and okay in the sight of the world that a God I insist is so kind and gracious struck down a man with death. And I would not try. I was free. I was free from explaining to the world with long-winded evasions the epistle's instructions that a wife should adhere to her husband; I was free from explaining to the world why the Flood makes sense; I was free from explaining to the world that pagan Nineveh really did accept Yahweh, if only for a brief time, at the preaching of Jonah, who had just been spat onto shore by a giant fish, in which he'd spent three days and nights, though no historical record of this conversion exists.
God killed Er, the firstborn of Judah, because he was a wicked dirtbag who contaminated the land and the people in it. And that's the way it was. No God as powerful and as awesome as mine needs an idiot like me to explain Him, to make Him look good to the world that made up its mind long ago that it hates Him and the light He brought by dying on the cross for them.
My God, who killed Er the firstborn of Judah, is an awesome God.
OHMS,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess
"And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."" -Luke 19:39-40
This statement appears amidst the scores of names and genealogies in the first book of the Chronicles. There are many little jewels that stand out in those first few chapters, so yawn-inducing. "The prayer of Jabez" is the most powerful example, and little things that stick out in the lists of names so alien to us..."And they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them, for they cried out to God in the battle. He heeded their prayer, because they put their trust in Him....because the war was God's"...and a daughter of Ephraim, Sheerah, a strong woman who built three cities, in a Book so ignorantly called a chain to women.
But of all the things that softened my heart, there it was: "Er, the firstborn of Judah, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; so He killed him."
Some Christians were given a mind for apologetics as a theological practice and skill. And some were given minds for other gifts. In my bumbling attempts at apologetics, I'd tried to make the more scrutinized and accused pieces of Scripture become acceptable to a world that will never accept it, no matter how lucidly it is explained. Deeper in my motives, I was trying to make the world accept me as some great thinker of Christianity, perhaps the American C.S. Lewis, so that maybe they'd accept the Gospel.
How ridiculous. How idolatrous! I thought the world would accept the Gospel if it accepted me.
But there, the words "He killed him" in a Book where God striking down the wicked is not uncommon, freed me from apologetics, something I had no business handling. I could not make it look acceptable, gentle, and okay in the sight of the world that a God I insist is so kind and gracious struck down a man with death. And I would not try. I was free. I was free from explaining to the world with long-winded evasions the epistle's instructions that a wife should adhere to her husband; I was free from explaining to the world why the Flood makes sense; I was free from explaining to the world that pagan Nineveh really did accept Yahweh, if only for a brief time, at the preaching of Jonah, who had just been spat onto shore by a giant fish, in which he'd spent three days and nights, though no historical record of this conversion exists.
God killed Er, the firstborn of Judah, because he was a wicked dirtbag who contaminated the land and the people in it. And that's the way it was. No God as powerful and as awesome as mine needs an idiot like me to explain Him, to make Him look good to the world that made up its mind long ago that it hates Him and the light He brought by dying on the cross for them.My God, who killed Er the firstborn of Judah, is an awesome God.
OHMS,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess
"And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."" -Luke 19:39-40
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