Be Made New: Truth
February 4, 2024Pastor Patrick presented today's message, "Be Made New: Truth." A video of the message is here.
Patrick boiled his message down to these five statements:1. Learn the TRUTH of God's word.
2. Align our thinking to the TRUTH.
3. Get rid of things that compete with the TRUTH.
4. Surround ourselves with supporters of the TRUTH.
5. Apply the TRUTH and believe God to bring transformation.
Coincidentally, our Family Dinner topic the night before (here) was TRUTH! It was part of a series I started: "Truth, Justice, and the American Way." Yes, we played the 1953 Superman TV series opening as a kickoff. "Look, up in the sky!..." We closed with a PragerU video about truth: here.
Let's look at two words often translated as truth: one Greek word from the New Testament and one Hebrew word from the Old Testament.
The Greek word for truth is alétheia (ἀλήθεια). It's from alethes which is itself made of two parts: a(lpha) which indicates a negative and lanthano which means to escape notice. So, it means fundamentally something that can't escape notice.
Alétheia can indicate many things along the lines of truth, including: universally true (under any circumstance), fact, certainty, veracity, and "in reality." In a subjective way it can refer to sincerity of mind and integrity of character or a mode of life in harmony with divine truth.
One Hebrew word for truth is emeth (אֶמֶת). It comes from aman which means to confirm or support. Like aletheia, it gets translated in many ways: truth, firmness, faithfulness, and stability. Psalm 91:4 says truth is your "shield and buckler."
Emeth can also indicate many things along the lines of truth, including: reliability or sureness, stability or continuance, faithfulness or reliableness, truth as spoken or speak truth, done in truth, or a body of truth (e.g. ethical and/or religious).
"Men of truth" is one of the attributes Jethro (Moses' father-in-law) used to describe the men he thought Moses should recruit to help him govern the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 18:21). It's often translated as "trustworthy men."
It's quite clear to me that Truth is contained within the path God wants us on, wants us made new upon, as Patrick explained with his golf course analogy a month ago (here). Inside God's bounded path for us is truth, outside is falsehood.
There are all manner of Biblical truths. Let's start at the very beginning... The Torah (first five books of the Bible) makes clear a number of distinctions that are truth. There is a world of difference between: Human-God, Human-Animal, God-Nature, Man-Woman, Life-Death, Good-Evil, and Holy-Profane. Woe unto those who confound these distinctions.
It's interesting to note that the Hebrew word for righteousness (tsedaqah, צְדָקָה) is sometimes meant in the sense of truthfulness.
Bonus
Why Keep the Sabbath
One of the most interesting debates among Christians is whether or not Christians are bound by the 4th Commandment: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:8-11). Interestingly, it's the longest commandment.
Search on "Sabbath New Testament" or the like and you'll find plenty of discussion on this topic.
Sabbath is understood in Judaism to be the period of time from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, every week.
There are many references to Sabbath in the New Testament (and, of course, many in the Old). Most of the NT references relate to the Sabbath of the Old Testament as the people involved were mostly Jews after all. A few references equate Sabbath with the Lord's Day, the latter being Sunday for Christians, the day of the Resurrection.
Sabbath in Biblical Hebrew is Shabbat (שַׁבָּת). The root has to do with rest or "ceasing from work." It's a celebration or recognition of God's resting from His creation work on the 7th day.
Prager teaches that "work" used in the commandment refers to your regular work. Your "other six days" work. So, if you're like Prager, a radio talk show host that has to keep up on the latest events, on the Sabbath you do not read newspapers or watch the news, etc. He notes also that the commandment includes the directive to work the other six days. Don't be a couch potato or a full-time golfer the other 6 days. Always be productive in some manner.
Here are Prager's best arguments for observing the Sabbath: Sabbath is good for YOU. It's a time for rejuvenation. It's a time to reflect on what you're doing and where you're going. It's a time to enjoy friends and family. It's time to study the Bible. And it's a time to focus on God and recognize Him as your Creator. Once a week, be overtly grateful for what God created for us. And be happy in it.
So, do I keep the Sabbath? A little. My wife and I try to make Friday or Saturday dinners a family time for family chat generally and for a little "Bible Study" as well. As you might imagine, with a household of eight kids at home (3rd grade through high school), two parents, and two grandparents, it can be hard to avoid everyone's activities over the weekend. The amazing part is how "into it" the kids are when it comes time for the Bible study part. The main focus of the study part each week is focused on raising good kids, building their character in a Godly way. Many of the Bonuses here are a write-up of what we talked about at a Family Dinner.
Here's an example of a Family Dinner which also was a Christmas Adam event. You'll see what I mean... Click here.
Bonus2
A Tamarisk Tree in Beersheba
Most of these thoughts I'm sharing were presented to me in a video episode in a series by Ray Vander Laan called RVL Discipleship the Study made available by Focus on the Family. Thanks, Bryan, for the tip! Season 1, Episode 3. Fundamentally, the course is about how to study the Bible by understanding its contexts. (There is a fee.)
Anthere, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Here's the quote: Genesis 21:33a, "Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba." The risk is that a modern reader will zoom right over that phrase not giving it a second thought. But to someone in the Ancient Near East (ANE), this would have been a wow.
Abraham would have had to travel a long way across the desert from where he was to Beersheba, about 45 miles. Tamarisk trees, any shade tree, would have been very important to desert dwellers for the shade and coolness offered. Folks of the ANE would also be acutely aware that planting a tree is, in a very real sense, a gift to future generations. And it's hard work. These trees need lots of water that often involved creating dams to collect runoff water when rare rains occurred.
Why, it's almost as if Abraham actually believes that God will provide him with countless descendants: "Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be" (Gen 15:5) and "I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered" (Gen 13:16).The deciduous version of a tamarisk tree is also called a salt cedar. The evergreen version is often called an Athel tree. Tamarisk can be grown in climate zones 4-9. The chillier the climate the less invasive it is.
The photo immediately above is from GardenChronicle.com.
My father-in-law, David Beatty, a real "tree nut," would always say: "You plant a tree for future generations." And he did that a lot! And I inherited the joy of trees from him. I do have a couple favorites: the bristlecone pine (pictured at right, the little white specks are definitive) and the Ginkgo Biloba. Broadly, I love any tree that weeps, creeps, crawls, or is ancient in nature (Bristlecone and Ginkgo).Off the Wall: Lynn and I ate breakfast at the Tamarisk Restaurant in Green River, Utah on a road trip to California. The restaurant is right along the Colorado River and in a somewhat desert environment. I don't recall if there was actually a Tamarisk tree there or not, and none of my photos made that clear one way or the other. However, their Facebook page has a photo or two that looks like there might be Tamarisk there - look for wispy green and/or the pink, elongated blooms.