J14 Sure hope you speak American...

Isaiah 28:9-13: "Whom will He teach knowledge, and to whom will He explain the message?...by men of strange lips and with an alien tongue the Lord will speak to His people..."

and Acts 2:4: "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance... each one heard them speaking in his own language.... the mighty works of God."

and I Corinthians 2:4-5: "...my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest upon the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."

and II Corinthians 3:6: "...the letter [of the law] kills, but the Spirit gives life..."

Chrysostom: (1) "How did men who spoke only the language of the Jews [Ed. note: Aramaic] win over the Scythian, the Indian, the Samaritan, and the Thracian? Because they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Not only did the apostles say this but also the prophets when they made both these facts clear, namely, that the apostles received the gift of tongues and that they failed to win over [those born in Judea]."

Reflection: Some context is needed for the passage from Isaiah. He was railing against the religious scholars who lived in Jerusalem and devoted their time to arcane arguments about scripture -- not to glorify God nor to win converts, not to serve others, but to win esteem for themselves and their cleverness. If scripture were a forest, these men could not see God in it because they disputed one another over the shape of a leaf... as Isaiah called it, "precept upon precept."

Even today, there is the same disparity among professing Christians, between "head knowledge" and "heart knowledge." There is a very wonderful series of books published by Zondervan called "Counterpoints." In each volume a precept is debated among Christian scholars with opposing interpretations. I love the debates in these books, but am always struck that many of the arguments rely entirely on human reasoning -- and inevitably, miss the spirit. This is not to belittle the scholarship -- but rather to say, if all the arguments sound solid, how am I to choose among them?

My prayer today: Let me be guided by Jesus in the Spirit...let me trust in the teaching I receive a little less, and in the prompting of the Spirit, a little more. When I choose what to believe, keep me humble in arguing that with another. Give me the patience and understanding to hear the message from You, Lord, as conveyed through the (little 'w') words of others.

(1) "Demonstration Against the Pagans, 7.2," in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, (sorry, I lost the volume reference...)

11/16/2018, 8/28/2024