Saturday, March 25, 2006
The Lion and the Lamb
Biblical Imagery Ain’t What It Used to Be
How many times do you see the picture of a male lion lying down calmly behind a small white lamb? The Lion is always male. The Lamb is always white. The scene is always peaceful. The weather is always good. The lion and the lamb are usually looking at the same thing just past the camera lens.
Most people think this is a biblical image of the peaceful kingdom to come as God brings the world to its conclusion. I have searched for this imagery in the Bible, but it doesn’t seem to be there.
Now, I did find a prophecy in Isaiah 11 about the wolf and the lamb dwelling (not merely lying down) together. The wolf is the natural enemy of sheep.
The prophecy is beautiful. The lion is said to eat straw. The leopard is described as lying down with the goat. The young lion and the calf and the fatling are all together. The cow and the bear graze, and their young are said to lie down together.
Why then is the only image we all know, the image of the lion and the lamb? Would anyone even recognize a picture of the cow and the bear or the leopard and the goat as being a biblical image of peace?
We want the Bible to say what we want it to say. We know Jesus as the Lamb of God because John the Baptist called Him that. Of course, John was thinking of the lamb as being a sacrifice on the altar, not a cute little creature resting in a field, and certainly not an immature bleating baby resting near a peaceful male lion. We also have the biblical language about the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and we, I think, correctly identify that image with the coming Messiah, and thus with Jesus.
So our Lion and Lamb image is seen by many as being two symbols of Jesus. He is the suffering servant and the ruling king. That is who Jesus is, of course, and we are right to recognize that fact. But this is not what the Bible is teaching in Isaiah 11. It makes for good devotional allegorical preaching, but it is not what the Bible is saying. Isaiah never identifies the lion and the lamb, nor does he put them together in his prophecy.
The Isaiah 11 passage is talking about God’s coming kingdom, but the animals are literal, not symbols of the messiah. The glorious prophecy is not fulfilled when the Lion of Judah becomes the sacrificial lamb (haven’t you heard it preached this way). The lion and the lamb are not in the same sentence in Isaiah. Our Christmas cards are simply wrong. Isaiah is right. God will one day bring peace and salvation to nature as well as to mankind.
Let’s read and teach what the Bible actually says.
How many times do you see the picture of a male lion lying down calmly behind a small white lamb? The Lion is always male. The Lamb is always white. The scene is always peaceful. The weather is always good. The lion and the lamb are usually looking at the same thing just past the camera lens.
Most people think this is a biblical image of the peaceful kingdom to come as God brings the world to its conclusion. I have searched for this imagery in the Bible, but it doesn’t seem to be there.
Now, I did find a prophecy in Isaiah 11 about the wolf and the lamb dwelling (not merely lying down) together. The wolf is the natural enemy of sheep.
The prophecy is beautiful. The lion is said to eat straw. The leopard is described as lying down with the goat. The young lion and the calf and the fatling are all together. The cow and the bear graze, and their young are said to lie down together.
Why then is the only image we all know, the image of the lion and the lamb? Would anyone even recognize a picture of the cow and the bear or the leopard and the goat as being a biblical image of peace?
We want the Bible to say what we want it to say. We know Jesus as the Lamb of God because John the Baptist called Him that. Of course, John was thinking of the lamb as being a sacrifice on the altar, not a cute little creature resting in a field, and certainly not an immature bleating baby resting near a peaceful male lion. We also have the biblical language about the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and we, I think, correctly identify that image with the coming Messiah, and thus with Jesus.
So our Lion and Lamb image is seen by many as being two symbols of Jesus. He is the suffering servant and the ruling king. That is who Jesus is, of course, and we are right to recognize that fact. But this is not what the Bible is teaching in Isaiah 11. It makes for good devotional allegorical preaching, but it is not what the Bible is saying. Isaiah never identifies the lion and the lamb, nor does he put them together in his prophecy.
The Isaiah 11 passage is talking about God’s coming kingdom, but the animals are literal, not symbols of the messiah. The glorious prophecy is not fulfilled when the Lion of Judah becomes the sacrificial lamb (haven’t you heard it preached this way). The lion and the lamb are not in the same sentence in Isaiah. Our Christmas cards are simply wrong. Isaiah is right. God will one day bring peace and salvation to nature as well as to mankind.
Let’s read and teach what the Bible actually says.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Cancer
Cancer
Don’t let anyone tell you differently; cancer is a bad thing.
It invades you from its invisible hiding places. It tries to kill you before you are even aware of it. It resists the poisons that we inject in our efforts to kill it first while we still have a chance. It dominates. It does not let go easily. But it can be overcome.
Cancer changes relationships. Cancer changes priorities. Often, these changes are good, but it is such a difficult way to get one’s attention.
I never knew how many different kinds of cancer there are, nor how individualized the treatments have to be. Everyone has a story, but their story is not my story. I have been very fortunate. Chemo has been gentle with me compared to many who have shared their story with me. My poisons are not necessarily the same as their poisons, but none of the chemo drugs are friendly to healthy cells. There are always some side effects.
God reveals Himself in unusual ways, however. There are certain things that He wants you to know, and for some, cancer is the best way to reveal those things. There are always some, of course, who will not learn, no matter what. I am not one of those, I pray.
Prayer, by the way, is the great mystery in all of this. How do we pray, and what do we pray for? Did God send this plague as a judgment? Did He allow it to teach us something? I suppose the prayer would be different in one case than the other. But I am sure that prayer makes a difference. It is not a rational conclusion, but it is a deeply spiritual one. I know people have been praying for me, and those prayers are felt in ways hard to describe. People are praying for healing. That is the correct prayer.
Wholeness is God’s ultimate desire for each of us. We may suffer in this life, but ultimately His desire is to restore us to health and wholeness. It is never wrong to pray for healing and the reduction of suffering. We must renew our minds in accordance with the biblical emphasis on truth and righteousness. We should do that whether we are sick or not. But a life-threatening situation, e.g. cancer, should never be seen apart from its spiritual context. Our lives ultimately belong to God.
My news, so far, is good. We seem to be shrinking the cancerous nodes. This is a word of hope for me. But many do not see such hope, and my prayers go out with renewed vigor for all of those. It is not only cancer that invades us. Sin is worse than any of the diseases we have, but our diseases don’t seem to attract us like our sin does. My prayer is that through whatever means necessary, that we will turn from sin, sober up about moral compromise, and rededicate ourselves to God Himself through Christ Jesus our Lord. This is a decision that can only be accomplished through the power of the divine Holy Spirit who testifies always to Christ and His ways of truth.
L. Russ Bush
Don’t let anyone tell you differently; cancer is a bad thing.
It invades you from its invisible hiding places. It tries to kill you before you are even aware of it. It resists the poisons that we inject in our efforts to kill it first while we still have a chance. It dominates. It does not let go easily. But it can be overcome.
Cancer changes relationships. Cancer changes priorities. Often, these changes are good, but it is such a difficult way to get one’s attention.
I never knew how many different kinds of cancer there are, nor how individualized the treatments have to be. Everyone has a story, but their story is not my story. I have been very fortunate. Chemo has been gentle with me compared to many who have shared their story with me. My poisons are not necessarily the same as their poisons, but none of the chemo drugs are friendly to healthy cells. There are always some side effects.
God reveals Himself in unusual ways, however. There are certain things that He wants you to know, and for some, cancer is the best way to reveal those things. There are always some, of course, who will not learn, no matter what. I am not one of those, I pray.
Prayer, by the way, is the great mystery in all of this. How do we pray, and what do we pray for? Did God send this plague as a judgment? Did He allow it to teach us something? I suppose the prayer would be different in one case than the other. But I am sure that prayer makes a difference. It is not a rational conclusion, but it is a deeply spiritual one. I know people have been praying for me, and those prayers are felt in ways hard to describe. People are praying for healing. That is the correct prayer.
Wholeness is God’s ultimate desire for each of us. We may suffer in this life, but ultimately His desire is to restore us to health and wholeness. It is never wrong to pray for healing and the reduction of suffering. We must renew our minds in accordance with the biblical emphasis on truth and righteousness. We should do that whether we are sick or not. But a life-threatening situation, e.g. cancer, should never be seen apart from its spiritual context. Our lives ultimately belong to God.
My news, so far, is good. We seem to be shrinking the cancerous nodes. This is a word of hope for me. But many do not see such hope, and my prayers go out with renewed vigor for all of those. It is not only cancer that invades us. Sin is worse than any of the diseases we have, but our diseases don’t seem to attract us like our sin does. My prayer is that through whatever means necessary, that we will turn from sin, sober up about moral compromise, and rededicate ourselves to God Himself through Christ Jesus our Lord. This is a decision that can only be accomplished through the power of the divine Holy Spirit who testifies always to Christ and His ways of truth.
L. Russ Bush
