My life right now

They found Mary, as usual, deep in the study of thorough bass and human nature; and had some new extracts to admire, and some new observations of thread-bare morality to listen to (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 12).

Mary and I are kindred spirits these days.

Jesus, the new Phinehas

This morning, I read Numbers 25. This is the story of the zeal of Phinehas, one of my favorite characters in the Bible. I am always struck at the foreshadowing of Christ and his priestly office on our behalf in this passage. We readily remember Christ being the one who fulfills the covenant God made with David, that one of David’s descendants will rule over God’s people forever. However, in Christ’s priestly office (the Bible teaches that Christ is our Prophet, Priest, and King), Christ also fulfills the covenant God made with Phinehas, that of a perpetual priesthood before God on behalf of his people. Here’s the passage in Numbers:

While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.” And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”
And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand (Numbers 25:1-9 ESV).

And the key part:

And the LORD said to Moses, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel’” (Numbers 25:10-13 ESV).

Does this sound familiar? Who turned back the wrath of God against his sinful people? Who made atonement for God’s people? Though Phinehas did it for a specific sin of Israel that day, Christ did it once for all for all of those who trust in him. As the author of Hebrews writes:

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant (Hebrews 9:11-15 ESV).

And this priestly role of Christ is not only foreshadowed in Phinehas, it is prophesied in Jeremiah:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’
“For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever” (Jeremiah 33:14-18 ESV).

It is with the coming of Christ—the “righteous Branch”—to save God’s people that God’s covenants with David and the priests are fulfilled: Christ, as descendent of David and the incarnation of God’s righteousness and justice (Romans 3), reigns forever as King, and Christ, as the great High Priest and only mediator between God and man, serves forever as a priest before God, presenting himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sin, having deflected the wrath of God away from us and onto himself on the cross (Hebrews 9–10; Romans 3).

We often remember Christ as the new David, the new Adam, the new Israel; but we often forget that he is the new Phinehas. But when we see that connection, we gain a better understanding of what Christ has done for us, and what he is doing right now for us, and we can thank him for it.

Praise God that when I sin, Christ is that moment interceding for me in heaven!

Five bleeding wounds he bears,
Received on Calvary.
They pour effectual prayers;
They strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, o forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

- Charles Wesley, “Arise, My Soul, Arise”

WordPress beats out Google+

After mulling it over for a while, I decided to go with WordPress over Google+ (or Blackboard) for my music theory and aural skills course websites this semester. The main reasons are that most of my posts with attachments will be PDFs or copyrighted audio materials. The former will not work with G+, and the latter are probably not a good idea to post on Google, even if I can keep the viewing/listening private. WordPress will also make it easier to recycle my online materials in future semesters, keep the materials private (to protect the privacy of students writing comments and to allow me to post copyrighted course materials legitimately), and control the interface (since it lives on my webserver).

The only down side I see so far when compared with G+ is that when I want to share something with all four courses, I have to post it four times. But, honestly, it’s such a quick copy and paste job, that that is the least of my worries.

I already have the first couple of assignments, syllabus, and some resources up, and it looks like it’s going to be a great enhancement to the class. Classes start Tuesday, so I’m sure I’ll have more to say about this for interested readers once things are underway.

Recommended reading

Things have been kind of crazy around here the past month. Between the cross-country move (with two little guys), the new job (with four courses to plan, new faculty orientation, etc.), tying up the last items necessary to officially submit the dissertation, church hunting, new friend making . . . oh, and potty-training . . . there hasn’t been much time for blogging. However, during this period of radio silence, let me direct your attention to the “Recommended reading” section to the right. These are posts from blogs that I follow that I found particularly interesting, enlightening, encouraging, or amusing. If I have time, I write a quick post about these things. But when I don’t, I just click “share” in Google reader and they show up in my blog’s sidebar. Even when I’m not writing, I’m reading, so feel free to check out what I’ve found the most inspiring over there.

Once the semester gets underway, either I will finally find time for writing, or I will have absolutely no time to blog. Hopefully, it will be the former. If not, I’ll see you again in January when I come back up for air! In the mean time, check out the recommended articles.

Duties of parents

An insightful, if at times severe (to modern readers, anyway), piece on the duties of Christian parents from Richard Baxter, an English Puritan who is a master of practical direction for the lives of justified sinners:

Duties of parents.

Luther on vocation and the glory of God

I just read Our Calling and God’s Glory by Gene Edward Veith (from Modern Reformation 16/6) about Luther’s theology of vocation. It gives an excellent summary of Luther’s teaching on this topic and its application today. A great short read on what it means to glorify God in our daily work. Here’s an excerpt from the intro to whet you’re appetite:

The doctrine of vocation is the theology of the Christian life. It solves the much-vexed problems of the relationship between faith and works, Christ and culture, how Christians are to live in the world. Less theoretically, vocation is the key to strong marriages and successful parenting. It contains the Christian perspective on politics and government. It shows the value, as well as the limits, of the secular world. And it shows Christians the meaning of their lives.

The Swedish theologian Einar Billing, in his book Our Calling, noted how our tendency is to look for our religion in the realm of the extraordinary, rather than in the ordinary. (1) In vocation, however, God is hidden even in the mundane activities of our everyday lives. And this is his glory.

Just a couple other points worth considering. First, Luther was actively countering the Romanist practice of monasticism and idea of “Holy Orders.” Luther was reclaiming the holy work of God’s people for all of God’s people, not just monks, priests, and bishops.

Second, and far more fundamental (though), is the idea that we can not work in such a way as to do service to God if we are not also serving others. If we are justified by faith apart from works, then all the good works God requires of us are performed by Christ on our behalf; we can add nothing to them that is of any merit. On the other hand, he who says he loves God but hates his brother is a liar (I John), and whatever we do to the least of Christ’s brothers and sisters, we do to him (Matthew 25). Thus, our chief duty as Christians in this life, whatever our occupation, should be the love of others for Christ’s sake (and all that entails). Again, Luther is countering heresy and deficiency in Romanist doctrine and practice, but we are not immune to the tendency toward thinking that God is pleased when we engage in some modern form of monastic isolation and self-denial. If we’re not using the place in which God has placed us as a base camp for loving and serving others, we’re missing the point.

I’m hoping to track down some of the primary sources, since I think Luther might be even more helpful than the Puritans on this topic. So, Lord willing (and work permitting), there will likely be some more engagement with Luther in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, Veith’s article is a great intro.

“More happy, but not more secure”

I came across the lyrics to a great hymn by Augustus Toplady (of “Rock of Ages” fame). Unfortunately, the tune I found with it does not do justice to the lyrics. (Maybe there’s a project there? Though there are some recent rewrites I’ve not looked at yet.)

Anyway, the particular line that gripped me falls at the very end. Talking of the believer contemplating eternity, he writes, “More happy, but not more secure, When all earthly ties have been riv’n.” That is such a great and profound truth. Though the believer’s experience of eternity will far outdo this life in so many ways, there is one thing that will not increase: our security in Christ. In this life, we can know the same security that we will know once sin, death, and hell have been defeated once and for all, because the work that decisively earned that security was performed in Palestine, 1978 years ago (give or take), and it is based in a covenant made between the Father and the Son “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4, ESV). As Jesus says in John 10:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand (John 10:27-29 ESV).

And Paul, in Romans 8:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1, ESV, emphasis added).

What a great promise!

Here’s the whole Toplady hymn:

A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing,
Nor fear, with God’s righteousness on,
My person and off’rings to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Savior’s obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.

The work which His goodness began,
The arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is Yea and Amen,
And never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now,
Not all things below or above,
Can make Him His purpose forego,
Or sever my soul from His love.

My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Imprest on His heart, it remains
In marks of indelible grace.
Yes! I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is giv’n;
More happy, but not more secure,
When all earthly ties have been riv’n.

History and Theology of the Puritans

My commute to my temp job this week has given me the opportunity to listen to the first few lectures of J.I. Packer’s course History and Theology of the Puritans, taught at Reformed Theological Seminary in 1988. (The link is to the free download of the lectures from iTunes U.) It’s been great so far, and I highly recommend it. Packer has done his homework, and the course is a great introduction to the English Puritans (including how to read some of the difficult prose that comes out of that school), as well as to various aspects of reformed theology. iTunes U has a number of similar courses from RTS (and other institutions, such as Westminster, PA), and The Gospel Coalition has a number of other courses. If you have a long enough commute, or a big road trip coming up, check them out.

Theology of work

As I’ve been thinking about what it means to glorify God through scholarly work in the humanities, I’ve begun to realize that I need a clearer grasp of what it means to glorify God through work, period. And who better to ask about a theology of work than the Puritans? Here are some passages from Richard Baxter’s A Christian Directory (quoted in Leland Ryken, “The Original Puritan Work Ethic,” in Christianity Today 89 (2006), also a good source for general thoughts on a theology of work). Hopefully they’ll get your mental gears turning, as they did mine.

Choose that employment or calling … in which you may be most serviceable to God. Choose not that in which you may be most rich or honourable in the world.

Be diligent in your callings, and spend no time in idleness, and perform your labours with holy minds, to the glory of God, and in obedience to his commands.

Idleness is a robbing God, who is the Lord of us and all our faculties.

Take pleasure in your work, and then you will not be slothful in it.

This interest of God in your lowest, and hardest, and servilist labour, doth make it honourable and should make it sweet.

The question is, How they use that which they labour so hard for, and save so sparingly. If they use it for God, and charitable uses, there is no man taketh a righter course.

Remember that riches do make it much harder for a man to be saved.

If God show you a way in which you may lawfully get more than in another way (without wrong to your soul, or to any other), if you refuse this, and then choose the less gainful way, you cross one of the ends of your calling, and you refuse to be God’s steward.

You must not desire nor seek to get another’s goods or labour for less than it is worth.

You have far more cause to be afraid of prosperity, than of adversity; of riches, than of poverty.

The devil suiteth his temptations to men’s daily work and business.

The makings of a great entrée

It was my job to cook dinner yesterday. We scheduled BLTs and corn on the cob. Very yummy. However, we’d already packed our cookie sheets, making it difficult to cook nine strips of savory bacon at once. My wife suggested a glass baking dish (heretofore referred to as the glass bacon dish), and it worked perfectly. Note how the bacon generously coats the entire bottom of the pan.

I thought to myself, “This looks like the beginnings of an amazing dish!” If only I had a recipe that began, step 1: thoroughly coat the bottom of a standard baking dish with bacon. That’s where this post comes in. Surely one of my readers (and I do have one particular reader in mind; you know who you are!) will be able to help me complete the recipe in a tasty, and not necessarily healthy, way.

So, your suggestions?