The Resurrection

The following passage in 1 Corinthians 15 has been used effectively in apologetics: arguments to persuade the unbeliever that the Christian world view is reasonable. However, this approach misses the point of the passage. Paul's intention for the passage seems to be slightly different. Paul is writing to the believers at Corinth that the physical reality of the Christ's resurrection should effect change in every aspect of their lives. Let's look at the passage.

1 Corinthians 15:1-19
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Gordon Fee points out in his commentary that this passage is actually correcting the view of some of the believers in Corinth: they were denying the importance of the resurrection. Gordon Fee points out the importance of historical events that were witnessed on Easter is to reaffirm the importance of Christ's resurrection and thus, confirming our hope of our future resurrection in our daily lives.

Gordon Fee
There is a place for apologetics, that is, the defense of Christianity to the unconverted; but Easter is not that place. Easter, which should be celebrated more frequently in the church, and not just at the Easter season, calls for our reaffirming the faith to the converted. The resurrection of Christ has determined our existence for all time and eternity. We do not merely live out our length of days and then have the hope of resurrection as an addendum; rather, as Paul makes plain in this passage, Christ’s resurrection has set in motion a chain of inexorable events that absolutely determines our present and our future. Christ is the first fruits of those who are his, who will be raised at his coming. That ought both to reform the way the way we currently live and to reshape our worship into seasons of unbridled rejoicing. (Fee, p. 760)

Paul's point is that if the reality of our future bodily resurrection is false, then Christ's resurrection did not happen, thus why live for Christ?

Gordon Fee
His point, of course, is that he is indeed crazy to put his life in constant jeopardy for the sake of others, if neither he nor they have hope in the resurrection. But even more, this sentence also indicates the absolute central and crucial place that Christ’s resurrection played in his life. One must remember throughout that to deny the resurrection of the dead meant to deny the resurrection of Christ (vv. 12-19), which meant for Paul the denial of Christian life altogether. Thus everything Christians do a Christians—and especially the labors of an apostle—are an absurdity if there is no resurrection. (p. 768)

The reason we can live sacrificially and boldly for the Gospel is because our physical lives on earth is not all there is. We have eternal reward in heaven if we seek Christ now. We can have joy through suffering because God allows us to know him better through suffering and furthermore, we know will be with God with our physical bodies through all eternity.

The New International Commentary of on the New Testament: The First Epistile to the Corinthians

Favorite Movies

To Kill a Mocking Bird (1962, Robert Mulligan)
Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
The Third Man (1949, Carol Reed)
Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Wells)
Twelve Angry Men (1957, Sidney Lumet)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, David Lean)
A Christmas Carol (1951, dir. Brian Desmond Hurst)
King Kong (1933, Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack)
The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston)
The Searchers (1956, John Ford)
The General (1926, Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton)
Network (1976, Sidney Lumet)
Shawshank Redemption (1994, Frank Darabont)
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone)
Unforgiven (1992, Clint Eastwood)
The Sting (1973, George Roy Hill)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939, Sidney Lanfield)
Rear Window (1954, Alfred Hitchcock)
The 39 Steps (1939, Alfred Hitchcock)
Parasite (2019, Bong Joon Ho)
The Natural (1984, Barry Levinson)
Young Frankenstein (1974, Mel Brokers)
To Be or Not to Be (1942, Ernst Lubitsch)
Rashoman (1950, Akira Kurosawa)
My Man Godfrey (1936, Gregory La Cava)
The Thin Man (1934, W.S. Van Dyke)
Lincoln (2012, Steven Spielberg)
Fiddler on the Roof (1971, Norman Jewison)
Singing in the Rain (1952, Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly)
Spirited Away (2001, Hayao Miyazaki)
Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to Love the Bomb (1964, Stanley Kubrick)
Duck Soup (1933, Leo McCarey, Marx Brothers)
Mary Poppins (1964, Robert Stevenson)
City Lights (1931, Charlie Chaplin)
The Gold Rush (1925, Charlie Chaplin)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg)
Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)
Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott)
All the President's Men (1976, Alan J. Pakula)
Schindler's List (1993, Steven Spielberg)
Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
The Princess Bride (1987, Rob Reiner)
Gunga Din (1939, George Stevens)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938, Michael Curtiz and William Keighley)
The Great Escape (1963, John Sturges)
Chariots of Fire (1981, Hugh Hudson)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957, Billy Wilder)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959, Otto Preminger)
The Big Sleep (1946, Howard Hawks)
Moneyball (2011, Bennett Miller)
The Big Short (2015, Adam McKay)
The Graduate (1967, Mike Nichols)
Annie Hall (1977, Woodie Allen)
Shane (1953, George Stevens)
Rocky (1976, Sylvester Stallone)
Goldfinger(1964, Guy Hamilton)
To Sir, with Love (1967, James Clavell)
A Man for All Seasons (1966, Fred Zinnemann)

Equality with God

I have been reading A New Testament Theology (revised edition 1993) by George Eldon Ladd. I am in the section where Ladd is covering the apostle Paul's theology. He is trying to define how Christ, "emptied himself" in Philippians 2:

Philippians 2:5–7
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (ESV)

Ladd highlights the difficulty of understanding what "emptying himself" means. He points out that "a guideline may be found from the implicit comparison between Christ and Adam" (p. 744). Here's the key passage in Genesis 3:

Genesis 3:1–6
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Adam and Eve chose to take what is not theirs to obtain equality with God. Compare this approach with how Christ lived on earth, "Christ emptied himself by taking the the form of a servant." Christ's example is proclaiming God's glory through faithful, humble service. Humans try to obtain equality with God by trying to obtain glory for themselves by grabbing glory that is not theirs.

Like Living Stones -- 2 Peter 2:5

1 Peter 2:1–6
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” (ESV)

There are five things to put away (or "put off" as Paul would say): mailice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. Let us look at the words in the Greek.

English	Greek	Definition
malice	κακίαν	It is antonym of the greek word for virtue
deceit	δόλον	It is derived from the verb, "to catch with bait."
hypocrisy	ὑποκρίσεις	pretense
envy	φθόνους	the envy which one man grudge another something which he himself desires, but does not possess
slander	καταλαλιάς	"to run"down," "to disparage"

Karen H. Jobes comments on the passage.

Karen H. Jobes
The vices listed in 2:1 that must be put off are those that destroy relationships and hence that destroy community. Peter is explaining in this letter how social alienation that the Christian experiences from society is to be remedied by genuine fellowship found within the community of believers, the nature of which he describes in 2:4-10. Peter's readers have been given a new birth as the people of God and therefore are to exhibit an ethical transformation in their relationships that is characteristics of the Father. (p. 131)

As Karen Jobes comments, these five vices destroy community. They are the evils one does to someone else. I read a lot of mysteries by British writers. A favorite plot device they use often is "poison pen letters." The letters indicate to the readers that some deeper, hidden, mischief is afoot. In these stories, the authors spell out, often in excruciating detail, the damage the letters do to the communal relationships. The letters disrupt trust, raise suspicions, and increase fear. They cause even more gossip to spread. Likewise in the local church, although these vices may not be expressed through poison pen letters, the evil will grow and if not opposed, it will eventually destroy a church.

The apostle Peter already addressed how to address these evils earlier in the letter.

1 Peter 1:22
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

The answer is pursuing loving one another with a pure heart that has been transformed by the Gospel. Peter then writes about why pursuing love is so dear to God's heart. He is building us into His house: a holy temple. Christ is the cornestone and we are the building blocks. The building material of the cornerstone and the living stones has the same attributes: human nature. Again, Karen Jobes provides some insight.

Karen H. Jobes
The placement of the Living Stone with living stones in the temple implies the close relationship of Christ with believers and their common nature as human beings. The Cornerstone is called "living" by virtue of his resurrection; the same resurrection life enlivens the stones that come to him and take their place in the new temple. The image of the living stones of the new temple also has implications for the conception of the Christians relationship to other believers. Notably, these living stones are not lying about in idle isolation or disorder in Peter's description. They are not heaped in a pile or scattered across a field. Christians are not individually temples of God in the image Peter presents. They are each put in place in a spiritual house for the purpose of being a holy priesthood that offers acceptable sacrifices to God. (1 Peter, pp. 148, 149)

John Calvin agrees, but stresses even more the role love has in fitting believers together.

John Calvin from commentary on the Catholic Epistles
We must further observe, that he constructs one house from the whole number of the faithful. For though every one of us is said to be the temple of God, yet all are united together in one, and must be joined together by mutual love, so that one temple may be made of us all. Then, as it is true that each one is a temple in which God dwells by his Spirit, so all ought to be so fitted together, that they may form one universal temple. This is the case when every one, content with his own measure, keeps himself within the limits of his own duty; all have, however, something to do with regard to others.
(https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom45/calcom45.iv.iii.i.html)

The apostle Paul uses this analogy as well in Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:19–22
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (ESV)

Notice to "build up" (οικοδομεισθε) in 1st Peter and to "build together" (συνοικοδομεῖσθε) in Ephesians are both in the present/passive/indicative. This means the action is being done to the members of the church and is an ongoing process.

There is an interesting verse in the Old Testament about how Solomon had his temple built is 1 Kings 6:7.

1 Kings 6:7
When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. (ESV)

It is not easy to find out why Solomon prepared the materials to fit together before bringing them to the construction site. The following verses from the Exodus and Deuteronomy, gives us a hint, but not the full story.

Exodus 20:24–25
An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. (ESV)

Deuteronomy 27:5–6
And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them; you shall build an altar to the LORD your God of uncut stones. And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God, (ESV)

I have two observations. The materials were pre-selected and pre-formed before they were brought to be placed in the building. This practice seems to point not just reverence to God, but the honoring God as the builder of the temple. Josephus, a historian born in A. D. 37 of a priestly Jewish a family, wrote the following about the ancient temple.

Now the whole structure of the temple was made, with great skill, of polished stones, and those laid together so very harmoniously and smoothly, that there appeared to the spectators no sign of any hammer, or other instrument of architecture, but as if, without any use of them, the entire materials had,naturally united themselves together, that the agreement of one part with another seemed rather to have been natural than to have arisen from the force of tools upon them.
The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume, The Antiquities of the Jews, Book 8 Chapter 3, p. 216) (Translated by William Whiston, New Updated Edition, Hendrickson Publishers, 1987)

The physical temple is a type of the "temple to come". The builders of the physical temple tried to minimize the role man has in creating the temple. Ultimately, God will build the final temple himself. God has selected believers to be the building stones and Christ is to be the cornerstone. He is shaping believers so they fit together seamlessly and beautifully when he is done. He uses believers to shape each other (Proverbs 27:17). The Holy Spirit has given each of us a unique set of gifts that we may serve one another in the body of Christ. Through Christ's example of his life and death, we learn how to serve one another sacrifically through love and humility.

Bibliography

Karen H. Jobes, Baker Exegetical Commentary in the New Testament (ECNT): 1 Peter , (2005)

Secret Codes in Jeremiah

I found this interesting. Jeremiah or Baruch (his scribe) disguised names of rival countries in the book of Jeremiah for various reasons. One obfuscation technique that Old Testament writers used is called, "atbash".

In his commentary, J. A. Thompson, defines what an "Atbash" is:

"Atbash" is a device in which the letters of a name counted from the beginning of the alphabet are exchanged for letters counted from the end: Zimki would be 'Elam in the Hebrew alphabet, and bbl (Babel) would be ssk (Shesak, in v.[25:]26). In these ciphers aleph is replaced by by taw (t), beth (b) by shin (s), etc. (p. 518)

Old Testament scholar, Walter Kaiser, calls "atbash" a cryptogram. The cryptogram technique is used in Jeremiah 51:1.

Jeremiah 51:1-4
Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon, against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai, and I will send to Babylon winnowers, and they shall winnow her, and they shall empty her land, when they come against her from every side on the day of trouble. Let not the archer bend his bow, and let him not stand up in his armor. Spare not her young men; devote to destruction all her army. They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and wounded in her streets. (ESV)

Kaiser's commentary on Jeremiah 51:1

God calls Babylon “Leb Kamai” (…), which means “the heart of those who rise against me.” But this is also a cryptogram, known as an atbash (see 25:26 for an explanation), so that the Heb. consonants lbqmy are reversed to spell instead kysdm, a disguised form of Chaldea/Babylon. It is employed here not because the name of Babylon is a secret for Jeremiah has already revealed the name (v. 1b), but so that the citizens of that land might realize that they are those who were opposing Yahweh from their hearts. (Kaiser, p. 565)

Earlier in Jeremiah (Jer. 25:26), Kaiser comments on a different passage using this same technique. The following is Kaiser's translation.

"all the kings of the north, near and far, one after another-- all the kings of the earth. After all of them, the king of Shesach will drink it too."

Here is Kaiser's comment on the passage:

Babylon is finally mentioned in v. 26b; however, it appears in cryptic fashion in a figure of speech knows as an atbash cryptogram. The word used here is “Sheshach” (v. 26b; 51:41). In this cryptogram, the alphabet is divided in halves so that the letters corresponding to the word “Sheshach” are read from the opposite half of the alphabet in reverse order. “Sheshach yields “B(a)b(e)l.” (Kaiser, p. 302)

Conclusion

I have no idea of the spiritual significance of the encryption. In the passage in Jeremiah 51, Baruch referenced both the name "Babylon" and its atbash "Leb-kamai." Baruch was not just encrypting names to protect himself. The original readers must have known its significance. The care the writers used in writing Jeremiah is displayed in details like this. To plumb scripture's depths and beauties is a lifelong pursuit.

Bibliography

1. Walter C. Kaiser, JR., Tiberius Rata, Walking the Ancient Paths: A Commentary on Jeremiah, (2019)

2. J. A. Thompson, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament: The Book of Jeremiah, (2019)

he will be quiet in his love (Zephaniah 3:17)

I am reading John Owen's book, Communion with God: Fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Owen quotes Zephaniah 3:17 using, of course, a very old version of the English Bible. One phrase in particular is translated differently from the English Standard Version. I compared both versions with a Bible translation I recently bought, the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), which was published in 2021. The LSB translates the phrase in the same way that John Owen quotes it. Compare the versions.

Zephaniah 3:17
English Standard Version (ESV)
The LORD your God is in your midst,
  a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
  he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.

Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)
The Yahweh your God is in your midst,
  a mighty one who will save;
he will be joyful over you with gladness;
  he will be quiet in his love;
he will exult over you with joyful singing.

Why the Versions are Different

LSB is an updated version of the NASB. The translators’ goal for the version was a word-for-word/phrase-for-phrase translation. They also tried to standardize how to translate certain words and phrases.

The LSB's choice of translating Zeph. 3:17d as "he will be quiet in his love" instead of "he will quiet you by his love" is an interesting choice. The LSB's choice emphasizes God's steadfast love in his choice of each believer and the ESV's choice highlights that God calms the believers' restless souls. Obviously, the first choice is a viable option and Owen notes the following about the verse.

Owen comments on how God is “quiet in his love”.

The love of God is so. Zephaniah 3:17, “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing.” Both these things are here assigned unto God in his love, — REST and DELIGHT. The words are, “yacharish be’ahavato” — “He shall be silent because of his love.” To rest with contentment is expressed by being silent; that is, without repining, without complaint. This God does upon the account of his own love, so full, so every way complete and absolute, that it will not allow him to complain of any thing in them whom he loves, but he is silent on the account thereof Or, “Rest in his love;” that is, he will not remove it, — he will not seek farther for another object. It shall make its abode upon the soul where it is once fixed, for ever. And COMPLACENCY or DELIGHT: “He rejoiceth with singing;” as one that is fully satisfied in that object he has fixed his love on. Here are two words used to express the delight and joy that God has in his love, — “yasis” and “yagil”. The first denotes the inward affection of the mind, joy of heart; and to set out the intenseness hereof, it is said he shall do it “besimchah”, — in gladness, or with joy. To have joy of heart in gladness, is the highest expression of delight in love.

(Communion with God, Chapter 4: How to Commune with the Father in Love)

Summary

Both translations of 17d are viable; however, I like LSB's version better. It fits the context better. Furthermore, I like the message. Remember going into a ice cream shop with dozens of flavors of ice cream? You see little children run up to the counter and study the different flavors. Their eyes flit from flavor to flavor as they walk along the counter trying to decide. Finally, their feet stop, their eyes rest on the tub of their choice, and their fingers point to their chosen flavor. Their choice has been made and they will not waver from it.

This verse reads that God's choice rested on every member of his universal church. He doesn't waver between to love or not to love us: He chose to love us from all eternity past and his love will rest on us for all eternity future. God will not retract that choice when we sin. He rests in that choice so that we may rest from our efforts to earn our salvation. In that choice of us, both God and us will exult in loud singing forever and ever.

Isaiah 31:4-5 -- The Lion and the Birds

Introduction

Our men's group studied Isaiah 31 around Easter time and the allusions to Passover stood out to me. Isaiah 31 has two similes comparing God's care and protection of his people to the behaviors of two very disparate animals: lions and birds. The context of the passage is a recurring theme in Isaiah. God promises to punish Israel's idolatry and sinful behaviors by sending the Assyrian army to capture Jerusalem. Israel panics and wants to enter into a treaty with the weak, but obliging Egypt. God points out through Isaiah that a partnership with Egypt not only violates God's command, but is a rejection of Him for the the gods of Egypt, which is even more idolatry. God's promises protection for Israel if only they would repent and return to him.
Here is the first figure of speech:

Isaiah 31:4
For thus the LORD said to me,
“As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,
    and when a band of shepherds is called out against him
he is not terrified by their shouting
    or daunted at their noise,
so the LORD of hosts will come down
    to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.

The Lion

The first image uses the behavior of a lion protecting his fallen prey. Nothing will distract a lion from protecting his meal from perceived threats. Even shepherds shouting at the lion will not scare it off. Please don't make this an allegory: God is not a lion consuming Jerusalem as his meal. Rather, the point is the laser focus of the lion for his prey illustrates how God wants to protect Israel from the invaders. Let us look at another example of this type of figure of speech. Luther also used animal imagery to illustrate focus. Luther noticed his dog's undivided attention on the piece of meat he was eating. Luther said, “Ah, if I could only pray the way that dog looks at meat.” Luther was not saying he wanted to be a dog to pray better, he made an observation that he wanted the same undeterred focus in prayer that his dog was exhibiting on the piece of meat.

God wanted Israel to know that carefully protecting Israel was the desire of his heart. God was not a god like the pagan gods. Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal when their god was not responding to their sacrifices by saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” (I Kings 18:28). Israel had God's full attention because he cared for them.

The Birds

The second image uses birds.

Isaiah 31:5
Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.” (ESV)

I found this imagery confusing. My first thought was of carrion birds hovering over a carcass. I did some digging and a commentator, John N. Oswalt suggested the imagery was referencing a mother bird protecting her nest.

John N. Oswalt
This verse varies the figure by comparing God to a mother bird which flies back and forth over her nest when a predator is near, both to distract the enemy and, if necessary, to offer herself as a victim to save her little ones. As noted above, this verse presents another side of God’s relationship to Judah. Not only is he strong and determined, he is also personally attached to his people and will defend (or shield, as this is the verb from which that noun is derived ) them, if need be, with himself.

passing over is parallel to "defending," and this suggests that the meaning is "protect," even "hover over." This meaning applies very well to Exodus 12. (p. 574)

Another commentator on this passage, Alec Motyer, took special notice of the verbs. He pointed out that Isaiah used four verbs: protect [or shield as in a garden wall protecting a garden], deliver, spare, and rescue. He wrote that "four is often the number symbolic of 'on every side'. Here four verbs pointed to sufficient, surrounding help." (Motyer, p. 255, [brackets mine])

I noticed this behavior in birds. In the spring when I rode my bike alongside some fields, small birds flew out aggressively toward me. They then flew ahead of me and landed on the next fence post. When I approached that fence post they chirped loudly and flew to the next post ahead of me. They did this for a couple of hundred of yards and then left me alone. I assumed they were protecting their nests. The mother birds were trying to distract me, a possible predator, from their nests. They were interposing themselves between me and their nests and then tried to lure me away. Of course, this motif is in the gospels. Christ interposed himself to protect us from God's wrath. He became the victim of God's wrath to protect believers from that wrath. He continues to protect us from the world and Satan's stratagems.

This figure of speech would have been powerful imagery to Israel, Isaiah's original audience. Oswalt pointed out in the quote above that the word protect is the Hebrew word "pass over". The mother bird tried to distract me by hovering above the nests so that I would pass over the nest, and thus protect her nestlings. Likewise, in the passover, God did not call Israel to arms to overthrow Pharoah; God called Israel to trust in the sacrifice. God passed over the houses of Israel during Passover in Egypt because of the blood from the sacrifices painted on the doorways (Exodus 12:23). In one sense the mother birds were offering themselves as a sacrifice to protect their young.

Sparrow Strength

Motyer comments that Israel wanted the visible power of warriors, horses and chariots from Egypt to protect them. They did not want a God who seemed to be passively protecting them as a garden wall or hovering sparrows. Israel wanted a massive show of strength. Motyer points out that God wanted Israel to depend on God's strength and wisdom because his weakness is greater than man's strength.

Alec Motyer
Zion had despised the Lord and his power in favour of Egypt. Did they say ‘About as much use as a sparrow’? But the ‘sparrow-strength’ of the Lord is stronger than men (1 Cor. 1:25), and it represents here his gentleness towards his errant people, sufficient to shield, deliver, ‘pass over’, and ‘rescue’. (p. 255)

Philosophers like Nietzche mocked Christians for having a dying God as their savior. Nietzche could not understand why people participated in a religion which stresses faith and humility over power and boldness. Paul wrote in 1 Corintians 1:25,

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (ESV)

God's wisdom is far superior to ours. We need to trust to his purposes and ways if we want true safety. God is not glorified through missles and tanks. He is glorified in his people trusting in him.

God's Call to Israel

God uses "sparrow strength" at times to guard and protect us. Furthermore, Christ calls to us repentence in his meekness. Israel's application of the two figures of speech is in Isaiah 31 is in the subsequent verses.

Isaiah 31:6–7
Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. (ESV)

The following comments explain the full impact of Isaiah's warning to Israel.

John N. Oswalt
they have deepened turning away is a graphic phrase. Not only have people turned aside from following God, they have intentionally deepened that turning away.
(p. 375)

God was calling Israel back from trusting in the idols of their own making and the idols of Egypt. Israel needed to realize they were going deeper into sin. Turning to Egypt means they were switching from being passive followers into active rebels. They might not see a display his power, but like the lions with their prey, God cares for them assidously. His attention will not be drawn away. His will not be thwarted. He will protect them from their enemies.

Like the sparrows, God was willing sacrifice himself to make the enemies to pass over them. Isaiah, in verse 31:7 even made a vague reference to the New Covenant: there will be a time in that day where the people of Israel will of themselves throw away their idols. God promises "in that day" that he will give them a new heart to worship him alone. God wanted Israel to join him now in living that future reality.

Applications

God is a mighty warrior, but he uses "sparrow strength" at times to guard and protect us. Furthermore, Christ calls to us repentence in his meekness. His ministry on earth was unpretentious. He even called himself meek and lowly.

Matthew 11:28–30
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (ESV)

In the tumult of life, we want displays of power, but God works in His wisdom. The Lord declared in Isaiah 55:8, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." We have to trust God to work in his own timing and ways. When we not only doubt God's promises, but turn to alternate solutions, we deepen the sin of distrust and insult God.

A puritan, Thomas Goodwin, wrote how we may take comfort in Christ's strength in meekness.

Thomas Goodwin (1600-1679)
So, says Christ, injuries and unkindnesses do not so work upon me as to make me irreconcilable; it is my nature to forgive: "I am meek." Yes, but (may we think) he being the Son of God and heir of heaven, and especially being now filled with glory, and sitting at God's right hand, he may now despise the lowliness of us here below; though not out of anger, yet out of that height of his greatness and distance that he is advanced unto, in that we are too mean for him to marry, or be familiar with. He surely has higher thoughts than to regard such poor, low things as we are. And so though indeed we conceive him meek, and not prejudiced with injuries, yet he may be too high and lofty to condescend so far as to regard, or take to heart, the condition of poor creatures. No, says Christ; "I am lowly" also, willing to bestow my love and favour upon the poorest and meanest. (The Heart of Christ in Heaven Towards Sinners on Earth (Kindle))

Christ loves his people. He will protect us in ways we can't even imagine. I see three applications of this passage.  

• He calls unbelievers to repent of their sin and follow him. There is no one who is so great a sinner that Christ in his meekness will not accept him. As Christians, we must share the Gospel with everyone especially sinners.
• He calls Christians to discard our idols such as money, entertainment, and power. God wants us to trust in His sparrow strength in working through providence to protect us. We may not see his hand in our tribulations but God is working in his sparrow strength to "work all things together for good for those called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28). Like the lion with his prey he will not be distracted. Because God has already sacrificed himself for us, we know that he will not withhold any good thing from us. (Romans 8:32)
• Christian leaders must model Christ's servant-leadership. Leaders must be willing to sacrifice themselves for their flock and serve in humility. Leaders must trust in God's sparrow-strength in making decisions in leading the flock.

Bibliography

Motyer, J. Alec, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary, Intervarsity Press, 1993
Oswalt, John N., The Book of Isaiah Chapters 1-39, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Wm., B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1986