Nathan E. Lewis

Presented by Nathan Lewis to the Faculty and Staff of St. Stephen’s Academy, August 2010

One of the contributions of the Wisdom literature of the Bible is its distinguishing between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is the acquisition of God’s truth, not only facts but also insight and perspective. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge. Dr. Bruce Waltke, who has taught over the past 50 years at nearly every Evangelical and Reformed Seminary in North America, is the finest presenter of this distinction in our day. Building on Dr. Robert Alter’s knowledge of Hebrew poetry, especially it strongest feature, couplet parallelism, Waltke has not only distinguished wisdom from knowledge but he has also displayed their inseparable relationship. Hebrew parallel couplets most usually follow the form “A line what’s more B line.” In (8:1) not only does wisdom beckon us, but what’s more, knowledge beckons us. A Hebrew reader would expect the reverse order: Not only does knowledge beckon us but ever more so wisdom, the true mastery of knowledge beckons us. But the author desires us to see that at every level, even the rudimentary levels of our acquisition of revealed truth, we are beckoned.
In the classical method of learning we might easily apply this realizing that at our lowest levels of learning in the Grammar school, where we focus on the acquisition of facts, we are beckoned to follow God. This is one of the amazing gospel themes of the whole of Scripture: we do not have to achieve a certain level of learning, discipleship or mastery of virtue to hear the divine voice. Continue reading »

Introduction:
The title, “The Minor Prophets,” has been used in the western Church since the days of Augustine. These prophets are “minor” in the sense that their writings are shorter compared to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. In the Hebrew Scriptures, all of the prophets are grouped in the 24 book section titled: “The Law and the Prophets.” The Minor Prophets cover a span of 300 years beginning in the 750’s B.C. through the mid-400 B.C.
This Hebraic grouping captures the covenantal structure of biblical texts. God gave the law to govern the covenant, that relational and central communion between God and his people. God attached blessing and curses to his law: blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. The prophets, in one sense, are God’s prosecuting attorneys, delivering God’s case against a disobedient covenant people. To the extent that his covenant reaches the entire world, the prophets bring cases against all rebellious nations. One of God’s central covenant promises is that through Abraham, all the nations of the world shall be blessed.
Moses is the prophet of God who delivered the law of God to his people at Mt. Sinai and then, at the end of his life, delivered it again in the form preserved in Deuteronomy, “the second law.” For us to understand and apply The Minor Prophets, we must have a fair understanding of the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses.
As Christians, we also understand Jesus and the apostles as they interpret the law and the prophets. The bold claim of Jesus is that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. The apostles present Jesus as the great prophet, greater than Moses and the suffering servant, who represents the human party of the covenant, “he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.” As John Calvin wrote in his introduction to Hosea, “As there is no hope of reconciliation with God except through a Mediator, they ever set forth the Messiah, whom the Lord had long before promised.” Continue reading »

Christopher Hitchens has been diagnosed with cancer. Please join me in prayer as he suffers and adjusts his personal schedule for treatments and rest. Please post a comment letting me know that you are pledging to pray with me for this brilliant man who has been willing to dialogue kindly and candidly with Christians and the world concerning his views of God’s existence and his struggle to embrace the Christian faith.

In the circles of the church I serve some parents are suspicious of youth ministries, reluctant to send their children to summer camp, mainly because of their childhood escapades and the trite nature of some youth programs. This suspicion is shared by some of my ministerial colleagues, who assign all youth ministry to the sphere of the family. For the past eight years, I have participated in hosting in the Pacific Northwest the youth camps of Reformed Youth Ministries. Each year we have offered a ratio of 1:4 to 1:6 (camper:staff) highlighting solid biblical and theological training mixed with fun recreation and enriching interaction, not to mention daily worship and prayer.
One of our counselors (a pastor) at our 2010 summer camp shared with me one good reason to send our youth to camp. He wrote:
Continue reading »

Rachel Werner, the Children Ministeries Coordinator at Evergreen Church in Beaverton, who works under my direction, discovered that our county manages several safe houses for women. She also discovered that many of the interiors of these houses looked and felt more like prisons than homes and so she has organized our teens to paint and to furnish bedrooms with new linens and other warming features. During Sunday morning announcements, as Rachel described the opportunity, I was emotionally stirred, a rarity for me during the delivery of announcements! My daughter joined the painting crew, and I can not begin to express the gratitude that I feel for her opportunity to serve in the name of Jesus, who spent much of his time with the hurting and marginalized members of his community. Continue reading »

In the days of his youth Fred was an outdoor enthusiast hiking the trails of Oregon. As an old man he began to suffer more and more from arthritis. He bought a modest RV, one of the simpler ones with an expanding bay window and a dish on the roof. He would park it along the Salmon River peering at the riffles where he would have fly fished in days past. At some point he began to surf the 378 channels off the satellite. He regularly drew the drapes of the bay window to cut the glare on the screen. In time he was confined to a wheel chair and installed a lift on his RV. The conventional wisdom of his friends and care providers was, “Don’t go out; you will endanger yourself.” And so, his mindset toward the nature he loved changed from joy to fear. His surfing finger would pause most often on Oregon Field and Stream, then he began to watch nothing else but the History Channel. Then, he took an interest in Christian cable, mostly fanatics crying the demise of American culture and morality. Continue reading »

Psalm 4: 4
Be angry, and do not sin;
Ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.

David, who wrote this Hebrew couplet also wrote in Psalm 37, “Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.” My personal experience is that I do better to obey Psalm 37 than to find a way to express my anger short of sinning. There must be a rare righteous indignation, but I have yet to experience it. The “A” line of a Hebrew couplet is often related to the “B” couplet in this fashion: “A what’s more, B.” The “B” line helps us to understand what David means in writing, “Be angry, and do not sin.” In the context of the “B” line, it means that the best way to be angry yet refrain from sinning is to keep your anger private. Uh Oh! Is David describing the destructive suppressed anger our counselors warn against? No, he is not recommending suppressed anger but noting that anger is rash. Were we to think first, we might find another response other than anger. We have been taught to think before we speak and now we are learning how to pause before we send an email. David would have us sleep on a troubling matter before any outburst. Continue reading »

Jesus of Nazareth possesses a dual nature: he is simultaneously fully divine and fully human. As a man Jesus needed his rest like any of us. He also needed solitude to renew his spirit exhausted from interpersonal interaction and spiritual confrontation. Mark’s Gospel supplies us with a sample of Jesus’ schedule. At sundown in Capernaum, Jesus begins to heal the sick and to cast out the demons. Mark notes that the entire city gathered around Jesus. Archaeologists estimate Capernaum to have been home to 1,500 residents in Jesus’ day. And so, Jesus could have been busy healing and casting out demons for several hours into the night. After an exhausting evening, Jesus rises early in the morning while it is still dark to pray in a desolate place. He prayed until the disciple’s search party found him. His sweet moment of solitude and prayer is broken by Peter saying, “Everyone is looking for you.” In the late morning, Jesus transitions from prayer to leadership announcing that he and his disciples are departing Capernaum to preach extensively throughout the region of Galilee.
Much has been recommended regarding early morning prayer in the Christian tradition. Many of us have read Martin Luther’s quote: “If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.” Continue reading »

Taylor Mali’s poem, “Typography,” is a brilliant analysis of our present language and culture. Should any of us take his advice, then we would be counter-culture. Apparently, a student of Mali, Ronnie Bruce created the animated version and posted it without Mali’s permission. Mali’s response was to post it at his own web site, recognizing its value. Bruce’s work will introduce more people to the beauty and relevance of poetry. His animated version exposes Bruce’s command of language and his grasp of his teacher’s poem.

Our text this morning is structurally part of the preceding text. Mark writes of Jesus expelling the demon from the man in the Capernaum synagogue, and then he tells us of his healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, finally reporting that he healed many of the sick in Capernaum casting out many demons. Mark writes his gospel to showcase the Son of Man coming into this world with visible and powerful authority over the spiritual and material realms. He not only combats the devil and his minions but he also eradicates the consequences of the common curse. Continue reading »