If It Ain’t Gnats, It’s Flies!

If It Ain’t Gnats, It’s Flies! This is an idiomatic phrase commonly used in the Southern United States. Since idioms do not translate well, here it is: this reflects the frustration expressed at seeing one problem or irritation followed by another and then another. It is the feeling of being surrounded by nothing but problems, aggravations, and irritations.

Anger and irritation are actually normal and are not inherently evil. Unchecked anger is.

Often, anger is really about a problem within yourself. If you are a normal person, you have many unmet expectations and desires.

Anger can be righteous when it aligns with the Lord’s hatred of sin and injustice. It is a holy act to ask the Lord to help you to properly handle anger.

John 16:33; James 1:2-4, 19-20; Matthew 11:28-29; Ephesians 4:31-32; Isaiah 41:10; Psalms 34:18, 37:8; Proverbs 14:17-29, 15:18, 19:11; Ecclesiastes 7:9; Philippians 4:6-7; 1 Thessalonians 15:18; 1 Corinthians 13:5; 2 Corinthians 10:15. 

Messianic Prophecies from the Old Testament: Today This Scripture Has Been Fulfilled in Your Hearing

Luke 4:16-28New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth

16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

        to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to let the oppressed go free,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” 24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers[a] in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage.

Footnotes:

Luke 4:27 The terms leper and leprosy can refer to several diseases

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

That the quoted text (from Isaiah 61:1-3) is a Messianic prophecy is evident because Jesus Himself used it in this way.

The scholars who insist that Jesus never identified Himself as the Messiah obviously never read this passage. Why else was the synagogue so quickly filled with rage? They understood exactly what He meant and they believed that He was speaking blasphemy.

Verse 28 says they “were fiiled” ἐπλήσθησαν  with rage. This is from the verb πλήθω I am filled (to the top; to full capacity. )  Strong categorizes the word ἐπλήσθησαν (e-plees-the-san) as V-AIP-3P (verb-aorist indicative passive- third person plural).

In English and many other languages, tense has primarily to do with time. In Koine Greek, tense has primarily to with the type of action. The aorist tense expresses action without any further definition. It carries the idea of sudden action. The people were suddenly filled with rage

What Does It mean?: "Raca"

In Matthew 5:21-22, the word "raca" remains untranslated in most versions.  It is an ancient Aramaic term of contempt which means "worthless," or "empty," and comes from a word,  רק
("raq") , meaning "to spit." Raca probably meant that the one to whom it was directed was "a piece of spit."


Jesus is pointing out that we are concerned about "big" sins, like murder or theft, but ignore our own multitude of "little" sins.  Here's a news flash: sin is sin, any sin is a missing of the mark, Αμαρτία.  Any sin renders us unworthy to approach the Holy God.  Our only hope is to be covered by the blood of the Lamb.  When God looks on his people, He sees the blood, He sees His Son.

What They Think of Us: Brief Bible Blunders #10

This is a video posted on You Tube in which an anti-Christian laughs at our "stupidity." He (she?) thinks this is a "gotcha" in which Jesus contradicts Himself. Well .... no.


In the first Bible quotation (Matthew 5:21-22), Jesus does one of His "but I say ..." clarifications in which He equates belligerent and belittling behavior toward another person with murder. Jesus took the Hebrew Scriptures and traditions and reinterpreted them. He placed His statements on a par with them. This is one of the reasons the Jews of his time thought He was a blasphemer. Only God could do what He did.


In the second quotation (Matthew 23:17), Jesus calls a group of religious leaders "fools." Did he violate his prior statement? If He was, as the world believes, just a man, yes. If he was, as Christians believe, fully Man and fully God, then, no. He was merely speaking the truth as He did in other situations.

"But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" Luke 12:20

Film Comment: The Magic Christian

The Magic Christian (1969) is Terry Southern's sarcastic and nihilist bite at hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and pretensions of altruism. This satire of the modern consumer culture skewers the rich, lawyers, social snobs, the church and just about everyone else. An underlying theme during the film is that the hypocrites are running about doing their lives while social unrest burns around them, totally unnoticed by them. The novel (also titled The Magic Christian) on which the film is based was considered by many to be obscene and was banned in several countries. Think of Monty Python with a knife.

Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) is a multi-bazillionare ("I have enough for everyone.") One day, on a whim, Sir Guy adopts a smelly and unkempt vagrant (Ringo Starr, of the Beatles) whom he meets in the park, and names him Youngman, Youngman Grand. "It's grand to be Grand."

Sir Guy takes Youngman out into the world to teach him the ultimate truth; Everyone has a price, everyone can be bought.  Spreading around his fortune with wild abandon, Sir Guy stages absurd situations to expose snobbery and greed and everyone responds exactly as he predicted they would.  Youngman gets into the spirit of his lessons, becoming ever more cynical by the second.

The Magic Christian of the title is a luxury ocean liner which caters only to the ultra-ultra-rich. Sir Guy arranges for the only available food on the ship to be potatoes.

Unless you are a Peter Sellers completist, this is not a film you probably wish to see. It is more sarcastic and angry than funny. When I say angry, I mean bitter. The bitterness comes to full fruition in the ending of the film.

THIS IS A SPOILER!  DO NOT READ THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU PLAN TO SEE THIS FILM! SKIP TO THE ENDING OF THIS POST! The film ends with an iconic but disgusting scene in which Sir Guy drives home his point. He hires a waste disposal company to fill a large swimming pool with animal blood, urine, and feces and then, while wearing a gas mask, scatters millions of pounds (this is a British film) into the pool. He and Youngman then stand back as all the men in expensive suits dive in to grab up as much money as they can. Everyone can be bought, everyone has a price. Not money itself, but the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10) because it is actually the love of self, the glorification of self above everything else, the root sin.

Christians may not realize it but they also have a price. Instead of allowing themselves to be bought by the world, they belong to Christ. Their love is of Christ who is of inestimable value.

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:" Galatians 3:13

"For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Corinthians 6:20.  

 The price was the life of Jesus, who is fully human and fully God.  How much is God worth?  

Go Ahead! Poke Me!

The other day I saw a rather corpulent young man wearing a tee shirt bearing the image of the Pillsbury Doughboy and the slogan, "Go Ahead!  Poke Me!"  The Doughboy is an advertising icon for the Pillsbury Company, a company which sells pastries, rolls, bread, etc.  In commercials featuring him, a finger pokes him in his round belly and he giggles.

That's not what the young man I saw had in mind.  From the scowl on his face it was obvious that he was daring someone, anyone, to say something about his size.   He looked as if he were carrying around a cloud of hostility, a  pervasive dark attitude, simmering belligerence.

The Bible doesn't deny the emotion of anger, Jesus became angry; His anger was Holy and justified.  The Bible does have something to say about unreasoning generalized bile and about true ill-wishing directed at another person.

"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Matthew 5:21-22.


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Concerning "Raca ," the word means "empty head," something like "idiot" or "stupid."

What Does It Mean?: Psalm 137:9

WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Is a recurrent segment in this blog. The meaning of certain Biblical verses is not always readily apparent to modern readers. Sometimes the answer to the problem is cultural, or linguistic, or philosophical. Sometimes no one knows what it means and we have to accept that full understanding will only come when we meet the Lord.

“Happy [shall he be], that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.”
 Psalm 137:9

That is in the Bible? Yes, it is, in a psalm about the grief and rage of exiles snatched up by the Edomites, “daughters of Babylon,” and carried away to a strange land. The exile’s homeland has been raped and destroyed.

This psalm is an accurate representation of the feelings of the defeated and brutalized Israelites crying out in rage to God, asking Him to give them vengeance against their oppressors. The final two verses, 8 and 9, are hateful curses directed at the oppressors. The psalmist is crying and screaming but has not yet received an answer from God.

There is disagreement among scholars as to whether the next Psalm (138) is related to 137 or not. Psalms may be a collection of totally unrelated poems and songs, but 138 is a prayer of thanks for an answer which God has provided. Those who believe that the Psalms are a collection might see the placement of 138 after 137 as the work of an editor or collector.

Feelings of Guilt That Won't Go Away

Christians should not live with a permanent sense of guilt. We are forgiven and God sees Jesus when he looks at us. We are also not yet perfected so we will knowingly or unknowingly continue to commit sins. Transitory feelings of guilt may be the Holy Spirit prodding us to alarm us that we are separating ourselves from God. He is calling us to remind us that though we are saved and will not be lost, we need to return to the working out of our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12; Hebrews 4:16). We are not saved by the working out but are participating with the Holy Spirit in our growing sanctification.

A permanent sense of guilt is another thing entirely and may have several causes, three of which will be discussed here: 

1. We may be consciously or unconsciously holding onto the belief that we must somehow earn our salvation, suspecting or knowing all the while that we are not good or holy enough. NO ONE IS GOOD OR HOLY ENOUGH! (Ephesians 2:8-9)

 At the moment of your salvation, God saw you as holy and He sees you as holy now. He still expects you to allow the Holy Spirit to conform you to him, to sanctification.

2. Satan is the Accuser (Revelation 12:10), daily making accusations to God against us. A persistent feeling of guilt may be Satan pulling a trick on you, immobilizing you; in football terms, "taking you out of the game." Do not allow him to do this. Romans 8:1; John 8:36.

3. The guilt that a Christian is feeling may be caused by the fact that he or she has not confessed their real sin. They may not even realize what their real sin is. Compulsive behaviors such as pathological eating, gambling, attraction to pornography, temper tantrums, etc. may plague Christians who over and over find themselves helplessly returning to the hated behavior. Though they confess their sin and ask God for "strength," they fail. The real sin may be underlying anger or resentment which is so frightening that it is directed into other, less fearsome directions. Rest assured that the Holy Spirit knows the real sin and will reveal it to the believer who truly listens.