Hindsight

Proverbs are conclusions, that’s what I love about them!  You have to take the conclusion and extrapolate all the information and ideas that go into the conclusion.  That’s why it’s called wisdom literature.  It takes a wise person to distill down to a conclusion, different experiences in different settings with different people under different circumstances.  

If I were to make this proverbial statement, “Blue is a beautiful color,” and then ask you to extrapolate out why I would make that conclusive statement.  You might say, “Ed loves the color blue because some of the most beautiful things he has ever seen are blue.  The sky the morning after a rain storm is bright blue, the Pacific Ocean on a clear day from a cliff, his wife’s eyes!”  Those would be correct extrapolations from my conclusive proverb, “Blue is a beautiful color.”

Extrapolation is a very subjective process that can be filled with error.  “Ed loves blue because it is the color of the police car that pulled him over, the baby blue color of the checks his wife ordered for him with puppies, the color of his face when he is choking.”  All of those extrapolations would be incorrect and untrue (except the puppies thing that my wife did to me years ago! I refused to use them.)

How do you ensure that your extrapolations from Proverbs are reasonable so that you don’t drift off into a subjective mess?

#1.  Realize that Proverbs are meant to draw us to God and understand HIM in a deeper way.  If you’re going to read Proverbs you need to refrain from totally reading it as a self-help book.  It certainly is meant to give us practical wisdom in living life but not divorced from God.  It is meant to help us understand how to live life with God’s influence and presence.

#2.  Realize that Proverbs are meant to build godliness in our lives.  If your goal is godliness there may be a price to pay.  Godliness doesn’t always bring about prosperity or popularity.  You don’t always win short-term impulsive decision friends by making long-term godly decisions.

Proverbs 14:7 states, “Stay away from a fool for you will not find knowledge on his lips.”  This does not mean Christians should avoid friendships with people who did not finish a certain level of education or are mentally handicapped or mentally ill.  Fool Biblically means non-believer’s in God who are selfish and indulgent and don’t believe they’ll ever give an account before a Holy God about how they’ve lived.  Be influenced by godly people not those who deny He exists.

#3.  Realize that the Bible interprets the Bible.  If you’re going to read Proverbs you have to examine the rest of scripture when it deals with a particular subject.

James 1:5 tells us, “God gives wisdom to those who ask for it.”  So in conjunction with reading Proverbs we have to pray for God to use those Proverbs in our lives so we can gain wisdom.

#4.  Realize most Proverbs follow common sense interpretation.  If I were to say, “Look before you leap.”  You would immediately realize that this statement/Proverb applies to more than jumping.  It’s a metaphor for being cautious before you commit to anything long-term. 

The same is true in Proverbs 6:27-29, 

“Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?

Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?

So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.” 

The last sentence interprets the first two sentences.  The first two sentences are metaphoric and the last is very literal.  Except the word sleep is also metaphorical and should be interpreted as???  

See!  I knew you’d understand it. 

Hindsight

Jesus commands us to be second mile people.  Roman soldiers could order any male citizen of Israel to carry his 70-85 lb. backpack one mile.  Yet in addition, Jesus says go a second mile as a volunteer, out of love, serve God by loving your neighbor and contributing a second mile. What a tough character challenge!  Thinking of Roman Soldiers as the neighbors Jesus had in mind.

I know I have a difficult time going a second mile with certain people situations:

When I feel someone has been irresponsible, I think to myself: they’ve made their bed now they can sleep in it!  They brought this upon themselves.  They’re just reaping what they’ve sown!  Do you think that way?

Do you think there were Roman citizens who got drunk and irresponsibly joined the Roman army?  Shouldn’t he have had to carry his own backpack?  People who were forced to carry the backpacks for soldiers could have said, “They’ve made their bed now…?”

When I feel someone has been rude.  For example, I’m in a department store spending my money and this clerk is rude or slow or apathetic or moody or just not very helpful.  I just can’t help thinking, “Why should I go the extra mile and be kind and polite to them?”

Do you think there was ever a rude Roman soldier?  Rome didn’t have a foreign service Miss Manners program to prepare their soldiers so they wouldn’t insult the Barbarians over which they ruled! 

When I feel someone has been unwilling to go a second mile for me I’m not motivated to go a second mile for them.  This is just the generic human performance response. You do something good for me and I’ll do something good for you.  But Jesus says to go to the heavenly performance level.  So even if someone does something evil to you do something good for them.  Sometimes Jesus really bugs me! 

Many years ago our Board gave me the directive to hire an architect to do all the plans to renovate our offices.  The firm that I hired called me a few weeks into the project and asked if I could forward them a payment because business was slow and they had to make payroll.  So the church advanced a payment of $2,000.00 based partly on work that was already done and work that was to be done.  It allowed that firm to make payroll.  They finished all the work and completely earned the advance. 

A couple of months later I asked this same person if they’d drop by for 10 minutes and give another area a quick look to let me know if they’d be interested in more work.  They charged me for a consultation!  That was 22 years ago and I can still tell the story like it was yesterday.  I’m not a very good poster child for the 2^nd Mile Program. 

I want to be a second Mile Person!  I want to be a member of the rare breed who commits to serving Jesus above their own “being taken advantage of” feelings.  A commitment to serve Jesus is a commitment to love our neighbor as ourselves.  The Great Commission of Jesus is a commission to wed works with words and walk a second mile while talking about Jesus the Savior.  Ironically, the more we go the second mile the better we get at it.  So be prepared for opportunities to go a second mile!

Further your search:

http://www.amazon.com/Pursuit-Excellence-The-Ted-Engstrom/dp/031024241X

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_23?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+difference+a+father+makes&sprefix=the+difference+a+father%2Cstripbooks%2C318

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Forgiveness

Hindsight

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of Jesus' most popular but there is a major problem with it.  It seems, to those who want to make this parable a child rearing self-help book, that Jesus is saying you don’t have to face the results of bad decisions.  That children don’t have to face the consequences for their irresponsible behavior!  If the father forgives everything then why should a daughter try to act in a responsible way?

Let me address that in two different ways.

#1.  The Prodigal Son is not a parable about how to be a great father!  Jesus wasn’t holding a parenting seminar on the side of a hill.  Luke 15:1-3 says that not only were the Pharisees and Scribes there but also the tax-gatherers and sinners.  They were all gathered around Jesus to hear what he had to teach that day.  As you can imagine, Jesus is addressing two fundamentally different groups: the super self-disciplined/self-righteous religious Marines called Pharisees and the super self-indulgent/Woodstock hippies called sinners.  Jesus is explaining why both groups are in desperate need of God’s grace. 

We are all so in need of grace but we have this self-examination blindness.  I never see my sin in as negative a way as I see your sin.  Your sin is blatant, repulsive, and frankly, you should be more intelligent than that.  I find it unbelievable that you’d say what you said, or act the way that you act!  I evaluate you with brutal self-righteousness.  It’s like the four blind men encountering an elephant.  One man grabs the trunk and says the elephant is like a snake.  Another grabs his leg and says the elephant is like a tree trunk.  On and on it goes because the elephant is so enormous that sight challenged people can’t picture all the elements that comprise one elephant.   They can’t get the full picture!  Neither can we.

The Prodigal Son is a parable about how great is the grace of the Father!

The grace of God is composed of His Infinite Acceptance eternally welded to His Unconditional Love. 

 

#2. There is one important parenting lesson we can learn from Jesus parable:  Sometimes your kids need to learn real life lessons that only the school of hard knocks can teach them.

This is a very important point.  Mainly because I have had in my life some situations of sin that I would simply categorize under the heading of, Tangible Examples of Ed’s Stupidity.  Are you with me?  Can you identify?  So, here we go:

“Tangible Examples of Ed’s Stupidity.”

·      When I was 12 a friend of mine and I made gasoline trails in the garage with a paint brush and then set them on fire.  It fits the category.

·      When I was 13 we put .22 caliber bullets in a vise and hit them with a hammer and shot them into the wall of the garage.  This is a category poster child.

·      When I was 15 I dove into the river without checking to see how deep the water was.  Should start a whole new category.

·      When I was 16 I jumped out onto a small rock 6 feet from shore at the edge of a large waterfall because I THOUGHT looking down would be a great angle for a picture with my camera.  Added to my category.

·      When I was 23 I replaced the alternator in my car without disconnecting the battery, which sparked the casing with the cable and blew out a diode.  Now when I turned on the car the alternator was putting out a hyper amount of amps.  In turn, when I turned on my headlights and blew up (not blew out, literally blew up) all the lightbulbs in my car including the dash lights! 

Notice all the examples are from long ago and far away?  I’m vainly trying to protect any kind of negative impression you might have of my 55 year old intelligence.  Believe me, I could give you some current examples--but please don’t send me your examples of my stupidity!  I know they are legion!

I’m so thankful for Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son.  It tells me that through the grace of God I can recover not only from my stupidity but from my sin and self-righteous stupidity. 

The grace of God is composed of His Infinite Acceptance eternally welded to His Unconditional Love!

Jewish children were highly educated in comparison to the rest of the ancient world.  They started with Bet Safar (Elementary School) from five to ten years of age.  They then moved to Bet Mishnah (Jr. High School) from ten to fourteen years of age. From fourteen to eighteen the very best and the very brightest would go on to be apprenticed to a Rabbi in what was called Bet Talmud (High School/College.)
At fourteen young men and women had finished their 9 years of formal education in the Jewish system.  So, young men would begin using whatever trade they had been taught and young women would often get married and begin a family (I’ve encouraged my daughters to wait a little longer!) But the very best and the very, very brightest would solicit, even beg to be selected as an apprentice to a Rabbi.  If chosen by a Rabbi they became a Talmede and continued their education.  The vast majority were rejected and went to work.   Very, very few were chosen or continued on in Bet Talmud to become a Rabbi.  
Potential Talmedes chose Rabbi’s they respected.  Rabbis whom they felt knew God well and had a deep commitment to follow Him.  The people of Israel were looking for the arrival of their Messiah and they looked to their Rabbis, “Maybe one of them could grow into being the Messiah.  Rabbis were viewed then as famous athletes, musicians, actors and celebrities are today.  When these young men chose a Rabbi they inwardly felt they might be choosing a leader who could deliver their nation from the oppression of the Romans and set up the eternal kingdom of God!  They were in awe of their chosen Rabbi.  They wanted to be selected like an American athlete wants to win a gold medal in the Olympics.
When Rabbi Jesus started his public ministry He chose His own disciples! He did not chose the best and the brightest.  He did not chose the wealthiest or the most socially connected.  He did not chose those with the most resources or the nicest homes.  He did not chose those who were at the top of their Bet Mishnah class.  He chose ordinary people.  People who had not been selected as Talmedes.  Fishermen, tax-collectors, zealots and one who’s career will always be remembered as, “betrayer.”  Ordinary people apprenticed to an extraordinary Rabbi.
Jesus said to them, “Come, be like me.”  By selecting them he was encouraging them, “I think YOU could be like ME!”  Those were remarkable statements in an Israeli culture where only the best and brightest were chosen.  Jesus said, “I chose you to be a Talmede of the Messiah!”  At least some of these had been told by a Rabbi, “Really you should go ahead and be a fisherman, being a Rabbi is too intellectually strenuous for you.”  And then, Jesus says, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.  I know who I am and I know who you are and I think YOU can be like ME!”
God uses everyone.  Everyone is called.  Everyone has an equal opportunity to be known and to know Rabbi Jesus.  Think of the fire in the hearts of the disciples when they were called, “He BELIEVES in ME!!!”
So it’s our turn.  Are you thankful to be called by Rabbi Jesus?  Does it create a fire in your heart that motivates you to know Him in a deeper and more personal way?  Will you commit to apply His teaching?  Will you follow the leading of His Spirit?  Will you obey Him when you hear His voice? Gateway Church provides opportunities for you to listen, learn, respond and apply His word to your life, join us in being Talmede’s of Rabbi Jesus.