The Heart Of God And The Church

By Michael J. Anthony

[This is the fourth article in the four-part series “The Heart of God,” delivered as the W. H. Griffith Thomas lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 6–9, 2018.]

[Michael J. Anthony is research professor of Christian education at Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, California.]

Introduction

The third article in this series examined the heart of God in relationship to social engagement. It explored God’s heart as it reaches out to the lost, the broken-hearted, the socially alienated, disenfranchised, marginalized, and trafficked. While the article did not explore the more than two hundred verses that speak of God’s compassion and care for these individuals, it did survey about two dozen verses that speak of his overwhelming concern for those who find themselves in need of justice and advocacy.

I steered away from references to social justice, since that term and its corresponding paradigm have often been pirated and distorted. I prefer the notion of social engagement, so I asked that each of us consider through the ministry of the Holy Spirit how we might represent the heart of God in the broken world in which we live. There is no prescriptive answer, but having no response is not a valid reply to our investigation.

The first article in the series explained that the concept of God’s heart speaks of God’s determined will and pleasure. I referenced Hans Wolff’s excellent work Anthropology of the Old Testament, where in one chapter he summarizes twenty-six Old Testament passages referring to God’s heart by saying, “They generally attest to His steadfast will and His longing desire—usually in regards to His plans for the future to which His whole will is completely committed.”[1]

This article looks at the heart of God as it pertains to the church. Mark Dever observes that

ultimately, the church should be regarded as important to Christians because of its importance to Christ. Christ founded the church (Matthew 16:18), purchased it with His blood (Acts 20:28), and intimately identifies Himself with it (Acts 9:4). The church is the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:23; 4:12; 5:23–32; Colossians 1:18, 24; 3:15; 1 Corinthians 12:12–27), the dwelling place of His Spirit (Romans 8:9, 11, 16; 1 Corinthians 3:16–17; 6:11, 15–17; Ephesians 2:18, 22; 4:4), and the chief instrument for glorifying God in the world. Finally, the church is God’s instrument for bringing both the Gospel to the nations and a great host of redeemed humanity to Himself (Revelation 5:9).[2]

The New Testament uses a variety of metaphors for the church. Some of these include the human body (1 Cor 12), a bride (2 Cor 11; Eph 5; Rev 21), the family, an army (Eph 6), a holy priesthood (1 Pet 2; Rev 1:5), a sheep field (John 10; 21; 1 Pet 2), a grapevine (John 15), a field (1 Cor 3), an olive tree, a holy nation (1 Pet 2; Rev 1; 5), and the temple of God (1 Cor 3; 2 Cor 6; Eph 2; 1 Pet 2). This article will focus on just three of them: the human body, the bride of Christ, and the family.

The Purpose Of Metaphor

Metaphors help us gain an understanding of something that may be unknown to us. “Interest in [these and other] literary devices is scarcely new. Under categories such as ‘metaphor’ or ‘type,’ Christians have dealt with literary aspects of the [biblical] text for centuries.”[3] “The essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. . . . Our thought processes are largely metaphorical and thus metaphors create reality because changes in our conceptual system affect how we perceive the world and act upon those perceptions.”[4]

Schreiner gives as an example the popular metaphor we use here in the United States, “Time is money.” We know that time is actually an abstract concept, so we use a metaphor to help us understand it. We use it in comparison with something we do know and understand, and that helps us bridge the gap between the abstract and the known. “We speak of wasting time, of saving time, of borrowed time, of giving time, of something costing an hour, and even of investing time.”[5] All of these descriptions are our attempt to use metaphors as bridges to help us understand the unknown. “Every time we use time as a resource metaphor we reinforce this perspective.”[6]

Biblical metaphors are similar. They allow us to understand more clearly the mysteries of God. They stir the mind to understand the representation or comparison that is being made. Biblical metaphors can add vividness and make abstract ideas more concrete. A metaphor is a useful aid to understanding in that it paints a picture for us. It illustrates something about our subject that can be perceived through the metaphor. For example, when the psalmist “spoke about how deep God’s love is, he used the image about the father’s love to the son (Ps. 103:13).”[7] Such language engages our heart as well as our mind. It taps into something deep within us that might otherwise remain untouched or unseen.

The danger in using metaphors is that it presupposes a certain knowledge base on the part of a listener. If, for example, you had never known your father or perhaps the experience you had with your earthly father was negative and abusive, the metaphor of a loving heavenly father may not communicate its intended meaning. At worst, it might communicate a false or unintended message.

Understanding such risk, I hope to illuminate a concept that I believe God wants us to understand with crystal clarity. My objective in this fourth and final article is to elucidate the heart of God as it relates to his church. In order to accomplish this, I want to employ three biblical metaphors that God uses to help us understand the importance, priority, and significance of the church. “There are nearly one hundred such images in the New Testament, images that reveal the church for what it is theologically.”[8]

“The doctrine of the church is of utmost importance. A theology for the church would be incomplete without a theology of the church. It is the most visible part of Christian theology, and it is vitally connected with every other part. Serious departures from the Bible’s teaching about the church normally signify other, more central misunderstandings about the Christian faith.”[9]

The metaphors of the body, the bride, and the family are all fairly common and not intended by God to be cryptic or in any way shrouded in mystery. Let’s first take a look at the metaphor of the human body to understand the heart of God as it pertains to the local church.

The Church As A Body

The apostle Paul uses the body metaphor in letters to the believers in Rome, Corinth, and Ephesus to help them understand the nature and purpose of the church. He describes the church as being made up of many different members, similar to those that comprise the human body. A sampling of verses pertaining to this concept includes:

• “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Rom 12:4–5).10
• “We who are many are one body” (1 Cor 10:17).
• “Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Cor 12:12).
• “You are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor 12:27).
• “Equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Eph 4:12).
• “Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior” (Eph 5:23).
• “We are members of [Christ’s] body” (Eph 5:30).

“The body [of Christ] as a metaphor for the church is unique to Pauline literature and constitutes one of the most significant concepts therein. The primary purpose of this metaphor is to demonstrate the interrelatedness of diversity and unity within the church, especially with reference to spiritual gifts.”[11]

“As believers and followers of Jesus Christ our Lord, our spiritual well-being depends on our connection to Christ through His body. In 1 Corinthians 12, the word body appears 18 times. Paul’s conclusion in this chapter is that we must be connected to each other in order to be what God wants us to be.”[12] This and other related passages make abundantly clear that each body part is essential for the well-being of the body as a whole. Just as the physical body is weakened if one part is missing or unhealthy, so it is with the spiritual body as well. Each spiritual gift that is given by God through the Holy Spirit is essential for the well-being of the whole.

Knowing this helps us understand the heart of God as it relates to the church. This biblical metaphor illustrates how important it is for God to see us accept, embrace, and welcome each body part. No part should be held in contempt, shunned, or discredited in any way. Unity in the body of Christ is at the heart of how God intends the body to operate on earth. His intended will and expressed desire is for every member of the body of Christ to get along, work together in harmony toward one purpose, and focus our energies toward accomplishing his expressed intentions for the church. These intentions no doubt include:

1. To proclaim the gospel message of salvation in Christ. This is the message Jesus charged his disciples with prior to his ascension to the Father in Matthew 28:18–20. This is, in essence, why he created the church in the first place: to preach, teach, or otherwise communicate the gospel message (2 Tim 2:15; 4:2).

2. To provide a measure of God’s grace and mercy in the here and now. Pain and suffering will be part of our existence, but the body of Christ, the church, can provide a measure of comfort for those who are caught up in the pain and suffering that this world has to offer. The previous article referenced the judgment seat of Christ from Matthew 25, where we read,

Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” Then the righteous will answer Him, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” The King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me” (vv. 34–40, NASB).

3. To employ each gift that the body has been given for the work of the ministry. There are as many as twenty-eight spiritual gifts mentioned in Scripture (depending on one’s definition and faith journey). While we may disagree on how many are still active today, the argument must be made that their purpose is to build up the body of Christ.

“That each class in society had a special function, like members of a body, had long been argued by philosophers defending the status quo of the state; Stoic philosophers had also applied the image of head and body to God and the universe. But Paul may be the first writer to suggest that each member of the religious community has a special function within the one body, abolishing the priesthood-laity distinction of most ancient religions.”[13] In the book of Romans and elsewhere throughout Paul’s writing, the apostle affirms the notion that once we have been baptized into the body of Christ and given a measure of his Spirit as confirmed by one or more spiritual gifts, distinctions based on those gifts are counterproductive to the unity of the church.

This literary imagery argues for the unity of the people of God. This is clearly communicated in the fourth chapter of Ephesians. The church comprises both Jews and Gentiles, and together they form one body (2:16). Throughout Paul’s writings, when he references this metaphor for the church, he clearly admonishes his readers about the dangers of partiality, bigotry, and prejudicial treatment of others in the church.

The Church As The Bride Of Christ

The second metaphor to explore is that of the bride of Christ. Marriage is not a metaphor unique to the New Testament. “The image of marriage is applied to God and Israel in the Old Testament (see Isa. 54:5–6; 62:5; Hos. 2:7, etc.).”[14] “The OT occasionally used the image of a bride (Heb. kallâ, kᵉlûlâ), together with other aspects of nuptial imagery, to depict Israel’s relationship to Yahweh (2 S. 17:3 [var. adopted by RSV, NEB]; Isa. 49:18; 61:10; 62:5; Jer. 2:2, 32). . . . This bridal imagery primarily emphasizes devotion (Jer. 2:2) and the joy of the bride (Isa. 61:10; 62:5).”[15] “Similar imagery is applied to Christ and the church in the New Testament. Christ, the bridegroom, has sacrificially and lovingly chosen the church to be his bride (Eph. 5:25–27). Her responsibility during the betrothal period is to be faithful to him (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:24). At the parousia, the official wedding ceremony will take place and, with it, the eternal union and his bride will be actualized (Rev. 19:7–9; 21:1–2).”[16]

As a metaphor, “bride of Christ” denotes intimacy, closeness, and loving proximity. A bride and her husband share a deep and abiding commitment that transcends the trials and turbulence of this life. Speaking of this lasting bond, John Piper writes, “The union of man and woman in marriage is a mystery because it conceals, as in a parable, a truth about Christ and the church. The divine reality hidden in the metaphor of marriage is that God ordained a permanent union between His Son and the church. Human marriage is the earthly image of this divine plan. As God willed for Christ and the church to become one body (Gal 3:28; 1 Cor 12:13), so He willed for marriage to reflect this pattern—that the husband and wife become one flesh (Gen 2:24).”[17]

John the apostle also found the metaphor of the bride of Christ helpful. He pictured the church as “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” in her eschatological glory (Rev 21:9). Especially prominent is the portrait of the church as dressed in white; her clothes indicate her blameless character. Among the promises given to the local churches at the beginning of the Apocalypse are that those who overcome will be clothed “in white garments” and allowed into His presence (3:5). Those martyred for witnessing faithfully of Christ will be given a white robe (6:11). A multitude from the nations comes out of the great tribulation wearing robes “made white in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14). The glorious church is blessed because it will be called to the “marriage supper of the Lamb,” where she is given “fine linen, clean and bright” to represent her “righteous acts” (19:7–9).[18]

The bride of Christ is later found in the book of Revelation to be the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven having the glory of God. John declares of this bride, “Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Rev 21:11–14, NASB).

These references help God’s people understand his priority and significance for the church. The intimacy that exists between Christ and his bride is characterized in Scripture as being pure, righteous, marked by faithfulness, and a marriage relationship worthy of the most wonderful and glorious celebration that will ever be experienced throughout eternity. It will usher in a new age and dimension of relationship between God and man. A few verses illustrate this:

• “ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:31–32).
• “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb” (Rev 21:9).
• “The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure” (Rev 19:7–8).

The apostle Paul in his second letter to the Corinthian church highlights this metaphorical depiction of the church as Christ’s bride: “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Cor 11:2). “He pictures himself as the father of the bride whose ultimate purpose in betrothing ‘the church of God in Corinth’ (1:1) to her heavenly bridegroom Jesus Christ, was to present her as a virgin to her husband at his appearance.”[19]

Paul Barnett, writing about this concept in his commentary on 2 Corinthians, states, “By this elaborate metaphor Paul neatly describes the eschatological nature of apostolic evangelism. As a result of evangelism (1:19) a church (i.e. the betrothed) comes into being, related by faith (cf. 5:7) to her physically absent ‘husband’-to-be, whom she will not see until he ‘presents’ her as a ‘pure virgin’ to her ‘one husband.’ ”[20] This day will come in the future when the bride is formally presented to her bridegroom at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev 19).

Until that day occurs, ministry leaders and guardians of the church must strive to prevent false prophets and teachers from leading the bride astray. Indeed, history has clearly demonstrated the propensity of the bride to follow after teachers who advocate tantalizing philosophies and enticing heresies (cf. 2 Tim 1:14).

The Church As The Family Of God

This final metaphor illustrates another attempt at clarifying our understanding of God’s heart for the church. All of us came into existence through the context of a family. It might have been one led by a single parent, it might have been dysfunctional, but nonetheless, we all can trace our beginnings to a family. What is troubling today is trying to define it. Until recently, it wasn’t that hard—two parents (male and female) and a child (or perhaps several) living in one location. Pretty simple, really.

The difficulty today is in defining a family within our contemporary context. A 2011 article from the New York Times reported on a Pew Research Center analysis of seven trends in America. The trends were: “more unmarried couples raising children; more gay and lesbian couples raising children; more single women having children without a male partner to help raise them; more people living together without getting married; more mothers of young children working outside the home; more people of different races marrying each other; and more women not ever having children.”[21] These growing trends have far-reaching implications for how we understand the concept of family.

In biblical days, family was defined in the context of ancestors such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and a host of others related, albeit at times loosely, by blood. “Tribes,” “clans,” and “kinfolk” are words used to describe this broader concept of family. While there may be far more diversity in membership when using this paradigm, that is not to say these individuals have nothing in common, for indeed they do.

For those included in the family of God, commonality is drawn from our spiritual Father. With God as the head of our spiritual family, we find our identity as his children by new birth and adoption. That, in turn, makes us related by spiritual blood (the blood of Christ). We refer to one another from the household of faith as brothers and sisters. It has been accurately said that there are no grandchildren in God’s family. You are either a member of God’s family or not, based on a clear choice that you have made to receive or reject Christ as your Savior. One cannot join God’s family because of a decision a parent may have made decades earlier. A sampling of these metaphorical references includes:

• “I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor 6:18).
• “Stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’ ” (Matt 12:49–50).
• “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph 2:19).
• “As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10).
• “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity” (1 Tim 5:1).
• “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 1:4).

This metaphorical image of God’s family occurs only twice in Paul’s writings (see Eph 2:19; 1 Tim 3:15; cf. 2 Cor 6:18), but Timothy is his son in the faith and he loves the Thessalonians like a nursing mother. These references flow naturally out of Paul’s references to God as Father, believers as brothers and sisters, and the apostle as a household manager (see 1 Cor 4:1–2). Of note is the role the Holy Spirit plays in being responsible for and giving evidence of a believer becoming a member of the family of God. This is first seen in Galatians 4:4–6, where Paul draws a sharp contrast between living under the burden of the law and experiencing the freedom found as adopted children with the Holy Spirit now residing in us.[22] In this newly adopted relationship, we cry out, “Abba, Father.” A parallel passage in Romans declares, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:16).“To be saved” in the Pauline perspective meant to be joined with the people of God. Consequently, you were joined into one body as a vital member with the expectation that you would make a contribution via the gift(s) you were given. From this perspective we see that God is not just saving diverse individuals and preparing them for heaven, but rather he is creating a diverse people who are to be identified as his body today. As such, their relationship together as members of the same spiritual family provides an image and foretaste of what is yet to come.[23]

Conclusion

These four articles have sought to provide some clarity as to the meaning of “the heart of God.” I began by examining the various Old Testament references to the concept and from those verses concluded that, by and large, when reference is made to the heart of God, the author is referring to the steadfast will and predetermined direction of God’s intent—usually in regard to some current or future event or action.

New Testament references were far less obvious and required conclusions based on the interactions of God’s Son with people he encountered during his earthly ministry. For example, the study observed Jesus’s heartfelt compassion for the weak, the poor, those who were distressed, and those who were suffering from the burdens of life. A conversation from John 14 explains that the actions of the Son reveal the heart motives of the Father. There, Philip requested, “ ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?’ ” (vv. 8–10, NASB).

With these things in mind, let us now ask, What do the Scriptures teach about the state and condition of our own hearts? Second Chronicles 16:9 says, “The eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (NASB). In essence, to know our own hearts is to know our motives, our thoughts, and our eventual actions. “In Hebraic thought the heart is comprehensive in its operations as the seat of the intellect (e.g., Prov. 2:10a; 14:33; Dan. 10:12), affective (e.g., Ex. 4:14; Psa. 13:2; Jer. 15:16), volitional (e.g., Judg. 5:15; 1 Chron. 29:18; Prov. 16:1), and the religious life of a human being (e.g., Deut. 6:5; 2 Chron. 16:9; Ez. 6:9; 14:3). Because of this ultimate and vital role, to know a person’s heart is to know the actual person. It is the mirror image of a man or woman.”[24]

As Proverbs 27:19 states, “As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.” Since the heart holds the key to one’s essential makeup, its content and condition must be regularly examined. “Keep your heart with all vigilance,” admonishes the author of Proverbs 4:23, “for from it flow the springs of life.”

In 1 Kings we read that God came to Solomon in a dream and asked him what favor he could do for the young king. King Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge so that he might rule over God’s people with integrity (3:10). In essence, Solomon desired a heart that was soft and sensitive—able to discern right from wrong, to make wise decisions, and to rule in such a manner that he received God’s favor.

God granted the young king his desires and added a significant number of additional blessings as well. While we do not know the precise age at which Solomon became king, most scholars would say he was in his early twenties. We know from 1 Kings 11:42–43 that he reigned for forty years. This same chapter records six times that Solomon’s heart had been turned away from God. Worldly temptations had eroded that first love and slowly, and at times perhaps imperceptibly, his heart had grown cold. He died spiritually impoverished—a derelict of a godly leader.

If it can happen to someone who began his administration with a personal visit from God, it can certainly happen to anyone else. So it behooves us to guard our own hearts and protect them from the forces that would seek to destroy. Knowing this, Scripture admonishes us to be watchful over what we allow to influence our hearts, for once tainted, the heart is hard to restore.

That is not to say that the Holy Spirit is incapable of remaking, reshaping, or redeeming man’s heart. Certainly the inner working of the Holy Spirit can and should markedly improve the condition of our heart. Paul explains that evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is a changed heart. The “fruit of the Spirit,” as presented in Galatians 5, provides ample evidence that the redemptive work of God’s Spirit can and should encompass the condition of our heart. As such, our hearts will be revealed by our actions, for the manifestations of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control must first emanate out of a changed heart before they are in evidence throughout the world.

I conclude with the words of Antoine de Saint Exupéry in his famous novella The Little Prince:

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Notes

1. Hans W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament (London: SCM, 1974), 56.
2. Mark Dever, “Glorifying God—By Being a Biblically Sound Church,” SBC Life 19, no. 2 (December 2010), sbclife.net/article/1956/the-church--a-display-of-gods-glory. For a fuller treatment of this topic by Dever, see his chapter “The Church,” in A Theology for the Church, ed. Daniel L. Akin (Nashville: B&H, 2014), 603–68.
3. D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 57.
4. Patrick Schreiner, “The Body of Christ as a Self-Fulfilling Metaphor,” 9Marks, July 2, 2015, https://www.9marks.org/article/the-body-of-christ-as-a-self-fulfilling-metaphor/. See also George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).
5. Schreiner, “The Body of Christ.”
6. Ibid.
7. Suranto and Bakhoh Jatmiko, “Teaching Biblical Metaphors of the Church in the Indonesian Pluralistic Context,” Didache: Faithful Teaching 14, no. 1 (Summer 2014): 2, http://didache.nazarene.org.
8. Malcolm B. Yarnell III, “The Church: A Bride, a Building, a Body,” SBC Life 19, no. 3 (Summer 2011), http://www.sbclife.net/Articles/2011/02/sla14.
9. Dever, “Glorifying God.”
10. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations in this article are from the English Standard Version.
11. C. Marvin Pate, “Church,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 96.
12. Tony Evans, “The Body of Christ,” Tony Evans (blog), September 26, 2016, http://tonyevans.org/the-body-of-christ/.
13. Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1993), 439.
14. Pate, “Church,” 96.
15. D. E. Aune, “Bride of Christ,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, rev. ed., ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 1:546.
16. Pate, “Church,” 96.
17. John Piper, “A Metaphor of Christ and the Church,” The Standard 74, no. 2 (February 1984): 27, 29.
18. Yarnell, “The Church.”
19. Murray J. Harris, “2 Corinthians,” in Romans–Galatians, vol. 10 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976), 385. See also 2 Cor 4:14; Eph 5:27; 1 John 3:2–3.
20. Paul Barnett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 499.
21. Katherine Schulten, “How Do You Define Family?,” New York Times, February 24, 2011, https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/how-do-you-define-family/? mcubz=0.
22. Gordon D. Fee, Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 69.
23. Ibid., 72.
24. David Naugle, “The Biblical Conception of the ‘Heart,’ ” Dallas Baptist University, 2001 Summer Institute in Christian Scholarship, 1–2, www3.dbu.edu/Naugle/pdf/institute_handouts/general/biblical_heart.pdf.

The Heart Of God And Social Engagement

By Michael J. Anthony

[This is the third article in the four-part series “The Heart of God,” delivered as the W. H. Griffith Thomas lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 6–9, 2018.]

[Michael J. Anthony is research professor of Christian education at Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, California.]

Introduction

The previous article examined the heart of God in relationship to his call to conversion, and for some, his call into vocational ministry. It also glanced at the paradoxical manner in which God trains and equips his servants for the vocation of ministry. There is no template for how God calls and prepares ministry leaders, as there doesn’t seem to be any prescribed method in Scripture. Some were called with dramatic methods while others not so much.

You will recall that when we talk about the concept of God’s heart, we are speaking of God’s determined will and pleasure. In one chapter of Hans Wolff’s excellent Anthropology of the Old Testament, he summarizes twenty-six Old Testament passages referring to God’s heart by saying, “They generally attest to His steadfast will and His longing desire—usually in regards to His plans for the future to which His whole will is completely committed.”[1] In essence, once God has determined in his heart to do something, whether it be in the present or the future, once God has purposed something in his will, it is set. To do otherwise would undermine the immutability of his character.

This article turns its attention to the heart of God as it pertains to the needs of the world—more specifically, those who are suffering from injustice, intolerance, discrimination, and prejudice. In some situations, we are referring to those who are, as the Old

Testament describes, “sojourners in the land,” while at other times they may be referred to as the downtrodden, oppressed, disenfranchised, trafficked, or exploited.

I am not addressing the topic of social justice, Christian or otherwise, but rather social engagement. The former term has its origins in the writings of Plato in The Republic, a Socratic dialogue revolving around the nature of a just society. Indeed, many of our most conflicting and volatile political debates today—such as those around same-sex marriage, healthcare, Internet privacy, religious freedoms, immigration, redistribution of wealth, racism, and the like—center on disputes about the meaning of social justice.[2]

I prefer to focus less on the extremes of social justice, as seen in the more contemporary disciplines of liberation theology, feminist theology, and theologies attentive to religious diversity, and focus more on what the text of Scripture has to say about how God expects us to respect, interact with, and treat others. To do this, I prefer to form a biblical theology of social engagement based on the conservative foundation of exegesis rather than the more easily distorted and biased methods found in eisegesis.

Forming A Biblical Theology Of Social Engagement

As I approach my desire to form a biblical theology of wealth, poverty, justice, and oppression, I am more acutely aware of my limited time than at any point prior to today. How is it possible to review and discuss with any degree of satisfaction the more than two thousand verses that deal with these topics?[3] Throughout the Old Testament we read of God’s heart toward those who are oppressed, imprisoned, treated unfairly, homeless, sex trafficked, and enslaved by economic systems that favor the rich over the poor.

Here is a sampling of verses that speak of God’s heart toward these people and what our response should be when we encounter them over the course of our travels.

• Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt (Exod 22:21).
• Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly (Lev 19:15).
• Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness (Lev 19:29).
• When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God (Lev 23:22).
• If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them (Deut 15:7).
• Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you (Deut 16:20).
• Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. . . . Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this. When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands (Deut 24:14–15, 17–19).
• But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless (Ps 10:14).
• The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love (Ps 33:5).
• A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling (Ps 68:5).
• For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help (Ps 72:12).
• Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed (Ps 82:3).
• I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy (Ps 140:12).
• He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free (Ps 146:7).
• Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done (Prov 19:17).
• The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern (Prov 29:7).
• Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow (Isa 1:17).
• Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless (Isa 10:1–2).
• “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor. . . . God defends the cause of the poor and needy, and so all goes well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord (Jer 22:13, 16).
• He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Mic 6:8).
• Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other (Zech 7:10).

Now turning our attention to selected New Testament passages:

• Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former (Matt 23:23).
• For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in; I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. . . . Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me (Matt 25:35–36, 40).
• Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked, The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God” (Acts 10:4).

One would be hard pressed reading these verses, and the hundreds more that reference these themes, without coming to the conclusion that God’s heart is acutely tender to the plight of those who find themselves oppressed, mistreated, hungry, imprisoned, homeless, poor, fatherless, immigrants in a foreign land, trafficked, or victims of unfair employment practices. God’s heart, that is, his steadfast will and his longing desire, is to see justice, mercy, compassion, and peace prevail.

Jesus’s Mission Statement

Now let me quote Jesus at the advent of his earthly ministry:

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16–21).

This passage Jesus read was a messianic prophecy that envisioned a coming Messiah who would be both a servant to the needy and a king worthy of obedience and devotion. As one of Jesus’s first statements regarding his earthly mission and identity as the Messiah, what he said at this small synagogue nestled along the shore of Galilee was a declaration to all who were in attendance that he had come for a specific and prescribed purpose.

This mission statement of Jesus included “recovery of sight to the blind.” It is interesting to note that the original text found in Isaiah 61 also included a promise to “bind up the brokenhearted.” He continued by asserting his commitment to justice. He had come to “proclaim freedom for prisoners,” to “release the oppressed,” and to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

No doubt this was an allusion to those who were living under the dictatorial reign of Rome, but perhaps in a broader sense it also addressed those who found themselves victims of a variety of injustices, whether political, social, or economic. This proclamation of “the year of the Lord’s favor” was a clear reference to the Old Testament year of jubilee when slaves were set free, land was returned to its ancestral owners, and debts were forgiven (Lev 25). This celebration, once every fifty years, was God’s way of protecting against the rich getting too rich and the poor sinking too low into poverty.[4]

In their book Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, Gushee and Stassen write regarding this passage: “This justice and righteousness are what God wills. More than that, they are what God does, what God enacts and carries out, as God delivers the oppressed from those who dominate them. In the reign-of-God passages especially, they are not merely human action: they are the gift of God’s dynamic reign. They are the heart of what God does when God delivers, saves, ransoms, and redeems His people.”[5]

Isaiah 58

A beautiful picture of God’s heart in relation to social engagement is provided for us in the fifty-eighth chapter of the book of Isaiah. It addresses the exiled nation of Israel while they were held in Babylonian captivity during the sixth century BC. Invaders had violently conquered these people as God’s punishment for their habitually idolatrous lifestyles. They had demonstrated centuries of contempt for God’s law over a long succession of apostate kings. They were desperate in their attempts to gain God’s favor in the hope that he might one day return them to their land. Yet, in spite of their efforts toward religious devotion, God judged them for their superficiality. God first passed judgment on their duplicity and then provided a glimpse into what he expects from those who desire to win his favor.

The prophet interrupts their claims to piety by calling for a series of behaviors we recognize as themes throughout the prophets: to loosen the bonds of injustice, to share what we have with those who have not, to bring the homeless into one’s house, to give clothing and shelter to the naked, to reconcile with one’s family, to help the afflicted. These are more than one time actions. These are behaviors with broad social consequences, actions that will restructure relationships. God’s desire is not for singular, pious acts, but for a whole cloth dismantling of unjust relationships.[6]

On the outside, they may have looked pious and godly, but God saw through their superficial acts of religiosity. God cares little for our rituals and liturgies if they are not offered with a sincere heart. What is shocking to us is the pronouncement in verse 4 that God refuses to listen to the prayers and veneration of those who practice insincere religious activities. However, this passage provides clear direction about what does please God.[7]

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (Isa 58:6–7).

Untying the cords of the yoke would have referred to the leather straps that fastened the yoke on the head of the oxen as they ploughed. While the exact meaning of the prophet’s statement may be susceptible to debate,

the more probable sense is, that if they were exercising any unjust and cruel authority over others; if they had bound them in any way contrary to the laws of God and the interests of justice, they were to release them. This might refer to their compelling others to servitude with more rigidity than the law of Moses allowed; or to holding them to contracts which had been fraudulently made; or to their exacting strict payment from persons wholly incapacitated to meet their obligations; or it might refer to their subjecting others to more rigid service than was allowed by the laws of Moses, but it would not require a very ardent imagination for anyone to see, that if they held slaves at all, that this came fairly under the description of the prophet.[8]

In short, if they wanted their prayers to be answered by God and if there was to be any hope of national restoration, a public commitment to national justice would have to prevail. It would need to be sincere, comprehensive, and infused with wholehearted mercy, compassion, and fairness. Anything less would be met with distance and silence from God.

Putting This Into Contemporary Perspective

So what is the average Christian sitting in a pew today to do? If we know in no uncertain terms that the heart of God is directed toward the plight of the poor, the hungry, the trafficked, the orphan, widow, unborn, persecuted, the imprisoned, the immigrant, and those who have been treated unjustly, what is our response? Does God expect anything of us as we read these verses? Is there a divine mandate that we will join him in these concerns, in his quest for justice, intervention in social engagement or other forms of intercession on behalf of those who are weak? Or is this simply something we read, give mild reflection to, and then go merrily on our way, achieving our personal goals and objectives for life?

If this idea of social engagement were based on one random verse, biblical concept, or mystical parable, we might be able to get away with inactivity. But when we discover that these verses transcend the entire biblical narrative, they force us to reconsider our personal priorities—at least they should.

But is it realistic to believe that our engagement in the plight of the world could make a difference? In essence, does it really matter? Many who have read these verses, for they are certainly not hidden from anyone who has read through the pages of Scripture, have come to believe that since the world is going to burn up in the end anyway, “why bother?”

I grew up in the hippie generation, which subsequently transitioned into the Jesus movement. We were raised on a steady diet of teaching about the rapture. It was coming any day. Books were written on it (The Late Great Planet Earth, There’s a New World Coming), songs were written to remind us of the impending destruction of our world (“I Wish We’d All Been Ready”). Youth rallies proclaimed with urgency that we were on the brink of the end. So naturally, why invest in what may not be here tomorrow? Why feed a hungry child if they were going to die tomorrow anyway? Wasn’t it more important to ensure their eternal home, since they were so close to going there?

It was for this reason that the evangelical church placed greater emphasis on evangelism than on social engagement. Now, nearly fifty years since I gave my life to Christ, I am wondering if we somehow missed the message, misinterpreted the urgency, or at the very least, perhaps were misguided in our passion and zeal. Is there not room for a balanced perspective?

Time certainly doesn’t allow for an exhaustive exploration of each of these important issues, but let’s drill down on just one of them for the sake of argument. Let’s take poverty for example.

I deal with this issue every day in my capacity as chief operating and finance officer at the Dream Centers in Colorado Springs. In our city, I am led to believe by the folks sitting on our city council, we have approximately 850 women and their children who are victims of domestic violence and have fled from their homes. Imagine living in your small vehicle with two young children in the backseat. It’s seven degrees outside and snowing. At dawn you need to get them fed, dressed, and dropped off for school by 8:00 a.m. Everything your family owns is packed in the car with you. Life has not been fair, equitable, or just, but here you are. Some of these ladies drop their kids off at Sunday school as they enter the church sanctuary and pray to God for provision, protection, and deliverance. Welcome to the world of urban poverty.

How do we fix this? How is poverty “solved”? It’s more than simply giving this woman and her children a bed to sleep in at night. Shelters have their place but they don’t solve the underlying issues that contribute to this woman’s state of affairs. It’s more than providing her with a meal to eat at night. A meal is helpful but it doesn’t solve the long-term problem this family is facing. Commenting on this dilemma, Richard Stearns, president of World Vision USA, writes,

Meeting one need isn’t enough. Shelter is a good thing but having a new home doesn’t necessarily put food on the table. Food security is crucial, but food without medical care is insufficient for good health. Access to health care is key, but without clean water and sanitation, people will continue to get sick. Water is foundational to life, but without schools and education, or economic opportunities and access to capital, communities remain mired in poverty.[9]

So then, if it is genuinely complicated and convoluted, do we do nothing? Are we to simply throw up our hands and say, “This is too hard, let someone else figure it out.” Is that the response God calls the church to? That certainly wasn’t the attitude of the Jerusalem church in Acts 4:

All the believers were of one heart and mind, and no one felt that what he owned was his own; everyone was sharing. And the apostles preached powerful sermons about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and there was warm fellowship among all the believers, and no poverty—for all who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money to the apostles to give to others in need (vv. 32–34, TLB).

While there are any number of possible responses a Christian could make, probably the most common response, judging from what I see being acted out in the North American evangelical church today, is simply no response at all. After all, getting involved in the needs of those who are dirty, hungry, imprisoned, or trafficked is messy business. It’s not that today’s average church attending person doesn’t care—they genuinely do, just not enough to do anything significant about it. They may offer the occasional prayer to solving these social plights, but at the end of their day, their inactivity speaks loud and clear about their apathy. I suspect God hears it too, much as he did in the days of Isaiah.

The founders of the liberation theology movement espoused another possible response—albeit a more militant form. Founded in Latin America in the 1960s and ’70s as a response to the widespread poverty and injustice found in Latin America, its leading proponents were Leonardo Boff of Brazil and Gustavo Gutierrez of Peru. The former was a Catholic theologian and friar from the Franciscan order and the latter was a Peruvian philosopher and Catholic priest from the Dominican order. Both were instrumental in calling out the authoritative hierarchy of the Catholic Church and were highly critical of those in economic and political power. Gutierrez penned a groundbreaking book titled A Theology of Liberation in 1973 that rocked the Catholic Church and espoused a radical model of socialism that was predicated on the writings of Karl Marx. Liberation theologians sought to depose the ruling elite and fight for an economic, political, and spiritual liberation of socially oppressed peoples.[10] In liberation theology, the lines between social engagement and political revolution are blurred. We see the remnants of this response in calls for a radical economic redistribution of wealth within American society today.

Liberation theology goes wrong in a couple of places. For one, it places social action on equal footing with the gospel message. As important as feeding the hungry is, it cannot take the place of the gospel of Christ (see Acts 3:6). Mankind’s primary need is spiritual, not social. Also, the gospel is for all people, including the rich (Luke 2:10). Visitors to the Christ Child included both shepherds and magi; both groups were welcome. To assign special status to any group as being preferred by God is to discriminate, something God does not do (Acts 10:34–35). Christ brings unity to His church, not division along socio-economic, racial, or gender lines (Eph. 4:15).[11]

Perhaps we would all agree that having no response is an unacceptable response. And likewise, the radical and revolutionary response of liberation theology is not a credible alternative. How about we discuss the possibility of a more moderate and reasonable alternative? While running the risk of being overly simplistic, let me suggest that the answer is a reliance on the Holy Spirit. I don’t think there is a “one size fits all” response for the church today for meeting the needs of poverty. Even Jesus said, “You will always have the poor among you” (Mark 14:7). There are simply too many variables involved that war against a sustainable alternative.

I would be naive if I believed that the plight of the world’s poor would be solved through the efforts of the government, federal social agencies, Wall Street tycoons, or well-meaning contemporary entrepreneurs. The answer will always be found in the church.

But how do we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as he seeks to reveal the heart of the heavenly Father as it pertains to the needs of the poor? A corporate heart of humility and openness to respond in a meaningful way are two good first steps. Believing the words found in Proverbs 19:17 is also helpful: “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.”

Let me close with a contemporary case study, one based on what one local church did to meet the needs of the poor in its community. The year was 2006 and New Life Church was being led by the highly charismatic and politically engaged Reverend Ted Haggard. He had been hailed as one of the most up-and-coming evangelical leaders in America but was harboring hidden sins. Eventually, they came out and the church came crashing down, $26 million in debt. The nation was in the midst of a financial meltdown, and the church went looking for a new pastor. No one in his right mind would have volunteered for such a post. It had to be a calling from God.

Enter Pastor Brady Boyd, age 40, then serving as an associate pastor in a local church in Dallas, Texas. He had never served as a senior pastor before he started his commission from the Lord at New Life Church in August 2007. “Three months later, on Dec. 9, 2007, a disturbed young man named Matthew Murray showed up on campus with a gun and took the lives of sisters Stephanie and Rachel Works.”[12] It should go without saying that the church was on the brink of folding. Attendance was down to 8,000. Some people believed it was cursed, while others believed it had no future. Mass exodus, extreme debt, moral failure, active shooter takes the lives of two parishioners—what a way to start a pastoral ministry.

At the onset of Pastor Boyd’s tenure at New Life, he read those poignant words in Proverbs 19:17: “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.” Pastor Boyd had a passion for the needs of the poor in the community, but what about the church’s debt? They had been paying their 150-member staff with a line of credit. Was this any time to start giving to the poor? Wasn’t the church itself poor?

Pastor Boyd believed God and took a bold leap of faith. He expanded the church’s local outreach ministry and formed the Dream Centers as a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Needless to say, not everyone was in support of this “outward” ministry venture. He started a medical clinic for the women of the city who had no medical insurance. Shortly thereafter, he raised two million dollars to purchase and refurbish an apartment complex to house homeless and abused women and their children. Today, Mary’s Home provides housing, trauma counseling, and college level education to twelve ladies. When they graduate four years after starting the program, they will enter a career earning a minimum of $40,000 per year. During this same time the church has paid off half its debt, and this past Easter they had 22,000 people in attendance.

Somehow the Holy Spirit spoke to this local church pastor, who had the courage to do something counterintuitive and give to the poor—not after the church had paid down their debt, not once attendance had picked back up, not even after he had earned the trust of the entire congregation. This pastor acted out of the conviction that there are certain nonnegotiable and irrevocable fundamentals for the church. One of those is a social engagement with the points of pain in their city. Like the first church and the early churches, they sought to minister to the places of greatest need in their community.

Too many churches have been fixated on building bigger church buildings, stages with dramatic lighting and sound, marketing themselves to every possible demographic. These things are not necessarily bad, they just aren’t the best kingdom activities.

Let me be honest. I don’t recommend this approach to anyone who hasn’t heard the voice of God speak clearly to them. Remember, there is no “one size fits all” approach to urban poverty. However, never underestimate what God can do through the life of someone whose heart is perfect toward him, so that he can show his great power in supporting him or her (2 Chron 16:9).

Let me conclude with the words of the psalmist in Psalm 146:7–9, as he describes the Lord,

Who executes justice for the oppressed;
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free.
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
The Lord raises up those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous;
The Lord protects the strangers;
He supports the fatherless and the widow,
But He thwarts the way of the wicked.

Let me encourage you to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as you try to discern the heart of God regarding the level of social engagement you feel is appropriate for you and your church. Nobody can tell you how to respond beyond what you read in God’s Word. It needs to be applied with wisdom, God-given discernment, and only under the clear direction of his Spirit. However, engagement in our broken world is not an option. Scripture is replete with far too many verses for us to comfortably walk away in ignorance or apathy.

My prayer is that you will discern the heart of God and have the courage to respond accordingly.

One thing I admonish you not to do is sit back and simply wait for change to happen. From his Birmingham jail cell in April 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “Justice too long delayed is justice denied.”[13] He then went on to say, “Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say ‘Wait.’ Progress takes time as well as the ‘tireless efforts’ of dedicated people of good will.”[14]

Notes

1. Hans Walter Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament (London: SCM, 1974), 56.
2. Vic McCracken, “Social Justice: An Introduction to a Vital Concept,” in Christian Faith and Social Justice: Five Views (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), 2.
3. Poverty and Justice Bible (Swindon, UK: British and Foreign Bible Society, 2008), http://povertyandjusticebible.org.
4. Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel (Nashville: W. Publishing Group, 2014), 9.
5. David P. Gushee and Glen H. Stassen, Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 137.
6. Amy Oden, “Commentary on Isaiah 58:1–9a [9b–12],” ¶3, https://www.working-preacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=793.
7. Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel, 43.
8. Albert Barnes, “Commentary on Isaiah 58:6, ” Barnes’s Notes on the New Testament (1870), http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/isaiah-58.html.
9. Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel, 274.
10. For excellent critiques of liberation theology consider the following: Edward A. Lynch, “The Retreat of Liberation Theology,” The Homiletic and Pastoral Review (February 1994): 12–21; William Diono Jr., “The Errors of Liberation Theology,” First Things, July 5, 2015, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/07/the-errors-of-liberation-theology.
11. https://www.gotquestions.org/liberation-theology.html
12. Mark Barna, “The Pulpit: New Life Church Is Thriving under New Leadership,” The Colorado Springs Gazette, December 5, 2008, http://gazette.com/the-pulpit-new-life-church-is-thriving-under-new-leadership/article/44469.
13. Martin Luther King Jr., “Letters from a Birmingham Jail,” ¶ 11, http://www.af-rica.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html.
14. Ibid.

The Heart Of God And Preparation Of The Pastor

By Michael J. Anthony

[This is the second article in the four-part series “The Heart of God,” delivered as the W. H. Griffith Thomas lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 6–9, 2018.]

[Michael J. Anthony is research professor of Christian education at Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, California.]

Introduction

The previous article examined an important element of our relationship with God: his heart. That brief exploration revealed that verses referencing God’s heart might be speaking of different things. Sometimes it refers to an emotion—such as his regret in making Saul king over the nation of Israel. More often than not, it refers to his determination and desire. I referenced Hans Wolff’s excellent Anthropology of the Old Testament, where in one chapter he summarizes twenty-six Old Testament passages referring to God’s heart by saying, “They generally attest to His steadfast will and His longing desire—usually in regards to His plans for the future to which His whole will is completely committed.”[1]

This article turns its attention to the heart of God as it pertains to the preparation of his servants—in our case, ministry leaders. I have chosen to divide this presentation into three sections: The Whisper of His Invitation, His Calling to Service, and finally, a more challenging section, The Paradox of Preparation.

The Whisper Of His Invitation

In the first days of recorded history we read of God’s intimate journey with mankind. Both Adam and Eve, made in the very image of their eternal Creator, enjoyed regular fellowship with God. We know from Genesis 1:31 that at the end of the sixth day, God pronounced his work “very good.” The condition of Eden was marked by unity with its Creator, harmony among all created beings, and a state of tranquility. Adam was invited into fellowship with God and given a job with meaning and purpose. It appears that God walked with Adam, conversed with him as with a friend, and allowed Adam a certain degree of autonomy and authority over creation.

In Genesis 3:8 we read that after Adam and Eve’s fall they heard the voice of the Lord God “walking in the garden in the cool of the day”—literally, “the wind of the day,”[2] presumably the evening hours when the late afternoon wind cooled the earth from the sweltering heat of the noonday sun. Knowing of their fallen state, God invited Adam and Eve into renewed fellowship with himself. God did not yell, scream, or roar at them. Instead, he gently called out to them to return into his presence.

Several commentary authors speak of God’s approach as a booming declaration, an almost terrifying display of fire, thunder, and lightning. I don’t believe this was the case. I believe the gentle wind of his approach would more likely have been characterized by a whisper, a calling out from a heart of compassion and care. One commentary author writes, “He came to convince and humble, not amaze and terrify them.”[3] As Paul asks in Romans, “Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (2:4).

Likewise, Scripture does not specify any explicit amount of time that the call to conversion involves. Surely conversion came rather immediately to those who attended Pentecost, which was in all likelihood the first time they had heard the gospel message presented. However, for some people conversion involves more of a process. This is probably the case when we examine the conversion of Nicodemus in John 3 cross-referenced with 19:39. However, a far more dramatic set of circumstances surrounds Saul of Tarsus’s conversion experience, which is associated with a voice from heaven and three days of blindness (Acts 9:4–7, 9, 17–18). Yet we see a few chapters later that Lydia’s call to conversion was calm and simple in nature. We read that “the Lord opened her heart to give heed to what was said by Paul” (16:14). Yet again, in the same chapter, we read the account of the Philippian jailer, who still trembling in fear from the recent earthquake cried out, “What must I do to be saved?” (v. 30). Though the conversion experiences of these individuals are vastly different, they all yield the same end result.[4]

While discussing dramatic evangelistic methods used by nineteenth-century country circuit riders, who employed passionate appeals to conversion in tent meetings, Erickson writes, “Although God frequently does work with individuals in this way, differences in personality type, background, and immediate circumstances may result in a very different type of conversion. It is important not to insist that the incidents or external factors of conversion be identical for everyone.”[5]

More often than not today, God’s first call in the life of a ministry leader is a gentle whisper of invitation to repentance. It is an invitation that leads us by way of humility to the foot of the cross in a spirit of contrition. It is reminiscent of the invitation that Samuel received from God in the stillness of the night in 1 Samuel 3 where through patience, gentleness, and forbearance, God invited Samuel into a relationship with himself. It was neither terrifying nor alarming. Once Samuel realized the source of the invitation, he responded, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

This initial invitation to repentance that all ministry leaders must first accept is foundational to any subsequent calling to vocational service. For without this first call, there can be no second. Since we know it is God’s will that no one should perish (2 Pet 3:9), we know that it is within his heart’s desire for mankind to repent and initiate a personal relationship with their Creator.

His Calling To Service

We can all agree, when reading through the pages of Scripture with an eye toward understanding how God calls his servants into service, that God is anything but regimented. It would be ignorant and naive to believe that God has a prescriptive template when it comes to his calling.

Abraham’s call is found in the twelfth chapter of Genesis, where we read, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed’ ” (vv. 1–2). Notice that there is no fire from the heavens, thunder, lightning, or even dramatic special effects, just a simple command to leave his homeland and venture into the unknown.

Moses, on the other hand, received a call from God in the form of a burning bush and a wooden staff that transformed into a serpent. At one point, God used Moses’s own hand as an object lesson when it became “leprous like snow” and was then miraculously healed. In spite of five objections, Moses accepted the call and proceeded to Egypt to fulfill God’s kingdom purposes for his life. It is interesting to note how much change took place in Moses’s life over forty years. Where once he was only too eager to offer himself as a self-styled deliverer, now he is timid, unsure of himself, and keenly aware of his own defects.[6]

Joshua was called when Moses was commanded to lay hands on him before the priest Eleazar in the public assembly for the entire nation to witness (Num 27:18). By contrast, Gideon encountered an angel sitting alone at the base of an oak tree (Judg 6:11). He was busy beating out wheat to hide from the Midianites when an angel called him to serve as Israel’s next judge. In spite of Gideon’s objections that he was from the tribe of Manasseh and the youngest in his family, the Lord persisted and assured him of his provisions and protection for the assignment that lay ahead.

David’s call was unique as well. Pulled out from watching his father’s sheep by Samuel the prophet, he was anointed with a horn of oil in front of his older siblings. “We don’t know how old David was at this time. The ancient Jewish historian Josephus says that David was ten years old. Others guess he was about fifteen years old. It’s safe to say he was in that range.”[7] What is unique in David’s call to service is his lack of credentials. He had no formal education, military accolades (at the time), no civic experience, and little, if any, theological schooling. Evidently he played the harp.

Due to the gaps in the biblical narrative, we don’t know where he developed the kind of character that is described by God in Acts 13:22 as “a man after my own heart; who will do everything I want him to do.” Twice in the Psalms David speaks of his mother as a “maidservant of the Lord” (Pss 86:16; 116:16). Perhaps it was his mother who provided the fertile environment for the tenderness of heart that he had toward spiritual matters, much like Timothy’s mother, who poured into him a godly faith (2 Tim 1:5).[8]

As we move along the Old Testament storyline we come across the calling of the prophet Jeremiah. We’re told in the first chapter of his book that his call had been predestined by God prior to his birth. There we read,

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Then I said, “Alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth.”

But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ because everywhere I send you, you will go, and all that I command you, you will speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord (Jer 1:4–8).

Only his sovereign Creator knows the reasons for Jeremiah’s call into prophetic ministry. What we know is that Jeremiah was young, inexperienced in oratorical skills, and hesitant to accept what would become a challenging assignment. History tells us that Jeremiah spent his life foretelling the coming demise of the kingdom of Judah and criticizing the reigns of the apostate kings Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, sons of Josiah, and Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin. He is credited with holding the people of Judah together during the exile. During this time we glimpse Jeremiah’s heart as anguished at the condition of Judah in the same way that Hosea’s was toward the earlier state of the idolatrous Northern Kingdom.

Our final character sketch in the Old Testament is that of Ezekiel the priest. “Ezekiel’s long, detailed call narrative covers chapters 1 through 3 with visions and dialogues. The dialogue begins in chapter 2 as a voice speaks from out of the throne room: ‘Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak with you’ (Ezekiel 2:1).”[9] As a priest, Ezekiel would have been responsible for the preparation of the temple sacrifices in Jerusalem—slaughtering animals, butchering them, and roasting their meat. Obviously, there was a spiritual dimension to his role as a moral and spiritual spokesperson of the people.

His priesthood was interrupted when he was taken into exile during the first wave of deportations from Jerusalem in 605 BC. While a captive in Babylon he received his dramatic call. His was a unique calling due to the direct nature of God’s instruction. He knew specifically that he was sent to preach a message to his fellow captives informing them that their captivity would be prolonged and not brief, as held the message coming from the other prophets living in Babylon at that time. Jerusalem would fall and other captives would join them for a lengthy stay. Ezekiel’s message is associated with military symbolism such as chariot wheels (Ezek 1:16), an army (1:24), a throne (1:26), and a sentinel (3:16), but no religious symbols. One commentator writes, “Ezekiel’s call should dispel any notion that calls from God are generally calls away from secular professions and into church ministry.”[10]

As we round the corner of the Old Testament and begin to focus on the manner in which Jesus called his disciples in the New Testament, we discover that each of the disciples had his life interrupted by divine intervention in a unique way. If we use a broader definition of “disciple” beyond that of the Twelve, we find ourselves with three relatively distinctive groupings.

The first group, those who would later be known as his apostles, included middle-class fishermen with their own boats, ser-vants, and stable businesses. Fishing was a primary source of income in Galilee at this period in its history. Levi was a successful and wealthy tax collector (Luke 5:29). Subsequent to their calling, they left behind relative wealth and financial security for the unknowns of vocational ministry (Matt 4:18–22; Mark 1:14–20).

Reading further into the Gospel accounts we come across a second, less prominent yet no less important group of disciples. This group of “stay-at-home supporters” did not travel with Jesus but rather sent their financial support to provide for his material needs. This group included Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:29–34), Lazarus (John 11) and his sisters Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38–42), wealthy men like Joseph of Arimathea (24:50–51), and the wealthy women who Luke tells us “were helping to support them out of their private means” (8:3).

A third group of followers, those at the outer fringes of society, included a wide range of people who were less intimately associated with Jesus but connected nonetheless. This group included the Gadarene demoniac who was told to stay in his region and testify of his healing to his friends and family (Mark 5:18–20), a tax collector by the name of Zacchaeus who was told to turn from his greed but not from his profession (Luke 19), and others such as soldiers.[11]

Probably the most notable calling is that of the Pharisee Saul. Educated at the feet of Gamaliel, the leading Jewish scholar of his day, and a dedicated and devout Jew, his life of ardent opposition to the Christian faith was dramatically interrupted when he was on a journey to Damascus to further his antagonism toward the church. He saw a vision and heard the audible voice of God. He was suddenly struck blind for three days and left to the mercy of a Christian to heal him. This conversion and subsequent call to vocational ministry is a notable exception to those who would follow in his footsteps. It was indeed a unique calling for a man who would have a unique ministry.

While observing these accounts of callings, we do well to note the counterintuitive nature of God’s selection process. Deffinbaugh suggests that we should be concerned about “leadership profiling.” It is a well-known and commonly accepted fact that a disproportionate number of leaders in America are men who are “tall, dark, and handsome,” so to speak. Within the halls of our Christian community, we are profoundly guilty of leadership profiling. How can anyone not come away with this conclusion when we examine the composition of many of our ministries today? The governing boards of church and parachurch organizations are most often white-collar, successful businessmen. When we look for leaders, we give a disproportionate emphasis to education, intelligence, self-confidence, assertiveness, and most of all, success. We might do well to give further thought to God’s choice of David as Israel’s king, and let us not forget the words of the apostle Paul on this matter:[12]

Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were members of the upper class. But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, so that no one can boast in his presence. He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’ ” (1 Cor 1:26–31).

In summary, what do we learn of God’s heart in regard to his calling out of his servants? Clearly there is no prescriptive pattern, no one-size-fits-all approach. Likewise, some were already involved in religious activities, while others were farmers, merchants, shepherds, or businessmen. Most were hesitant; some insisted on the partnership of another prior to accepting their calls. In every case, God expected unequivocal obedience to repeat his message, employ his methods, and minister under the provision and protection that he alone would provide. In essence, the heart of God is to obediently do the will of God.

The Paradox Of Preparation

The time has come in this presentation to transition into the final point I’d like to make in understanding the heart of God as it relates to this subject. Once an individual responds to his invitation into conversion and following an acceptance of God’s call toward vocational ministry, there is yet one final element worth exploring. That is the manner in which God trains his messengers. Once again, there is no template to follow, no one-size-fits-all approach. However, that is not to say that there are no common denominators or similarities.

When we think of vocational preparation, our minds go to formal measures such as internships, which are common in the industries of law, medicine, or business. The military has boot camp, where months of physical and mental discipline prepare recruits for the rigors of battle. I endured several months of law enforcement academy prior to becoming a reserve deputy sheriff. In ministry, we generally believe a three- or four-year seminary regimen of academic courses is all that’s needed. The problem is, research indicates that the percentage of pastors who have graduated from seminary but quit the ministry within five years is alarmingly high. Such research is calling into question the effectiveness of our training methods.

As one article puts it, “Across Christian denominations, it’s been observed that the first five years of a ministerial career are a critical time. The newly ordained need to establish new identities as pastors or priests, and to develop leadership styles and practices that can sustain them through the challenges of leading a church.

Those who don’t succeed at these tasks often become isolated, frustrated, or disillusioned, and many consider leaving the ministry.”[13] One Los Angeles Times article cites the pastoral attrition rate to be as high as thirty to forty percent.[14]

Dr. Richard J. Krejcir, leading a team of researchers at Fuller Seminary’s Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development, writes, “After over 18 years of researching pastoral trends and many of us being a pastor, we have found (this data is backed up by other studies) that pastors are in a dangerous occupation! We are perhaps the single most stressful and frustrating working profession, more than medical doctors, lawyers, or politicians. We found that over 70% of pastors are so stressed out and burned out that they regularly consider leaving the ministry. Thirty-five to forty percent of pastors actually do leave the ministry, most after only five years.”[15] He then concludes, “Many pastors—I believe over 90 percent—start off right with a true call and the enthusiasm and the endurance of faith to make it, but something happens to derail their train of passion and love for the call.”[16] If that is true, we have a long way to go in our preparation of men and women for the realities of pastoral leadership.

I propose that one of the reasons why the pastoral attrition rate is so high is that we have failed as seminary educators to examine our methods of preparation from God’s perspective. After all, while there were religious academic institutions in Jesus’s day, neither he nor any of his disciples had either attended or graduated from any of them.

Now, don’t get me wrong or misunderstand what I am advocating here. I’m not encouraging students to throw down their books and walk out. Rather, I’d like them to consider a wider paradigm of training beyond the hallowed halls of academia. Perhaps a better way to look at it is that the time of seminary instruction may actually be only phase one of ministry training with other, less formal phases to come. Future phases may follow God’s agenda, his timeline, and outcomes known only to him and individually crafted for each person called.

I suggest that one of those phases of custom, God-ordained ministry preparation is pain and suffering. Yes, that’s right—pain and suffering. This is one of those biblical paradoxes. The first will be last, the weak will become strong, the humble will be elevated, those who give will receive, those who willingly become servants become free, those who die to self will receive life, and those who endure pain will be used for God’s kingdom purposes. It follows the teaching of Paul, where we read in 2 Corinthians 1:3–7,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

The biblical theology of God’s prescription of pain as preparation was espoused by a sixteenth-century Carmelite monk by the name of Juan de Yepes. He was born in 1542 in Fontiveros, Spain.[17] In 1567, he was ordained and given the name John of the Cross due to his life of prolonged pain and suffering. Later known as Saint John, his writings “describe the work of God upon the soul—not through joy and light, but through sorrow and darkness. The concept of the ‘dark night’ has become an integral part of understanding the spiritual journey.”[18]

In his most famous work, The Dark Night of the Soul,[19] he suggests that those who desire a close and intimate walk with God (certainly that should include every local church pastor) must at some point in their spiritual pilgrimage with God experience a season characterized by spiritual isolation, unanswered prayers, and unrelenting painful circumstances. During this season, ministry leaders are shaken to the core, and life circumstances can become so severe that they wonder if God himself has betrayed them.[20]

One seasoned ministry leader who has dedicated a significant portion of his ministry career to exploring this phenomenon writes, “Many pastors are largely unaware of the teachings of Saint John of the Cross, and insufficiently aware of the biblical theology of the purpose of sorrow and suffering, and thus when sorrow and suffering come into their lives and ministry, their effectiveness in pastoral ministry is negatively affected.”[21]

One need look no further than Scripture itself to validate this paradox of preparation. We see it in the forty years of arduous training that Moses endured as a shepherd in the desert and in Joseph’s season of suffering in prison while waiting for God’s sovereign commissioning. And who would want to volunteer for the trials endured by Ezekiel? Then, of course, there are the shipwrecks, beatings, and imprisonments of Paul and the painful suffering of countless early-church martyrs. Many of these personalities were busy being “about their Father’s business” when tragedy struck. For those who endured such overwhelming hardships, a level of intimacy that simple academic preparation could not replicate characterized their relationship with God.

In my profession as an executive coach and mentor of ministry leaders, I can’t begin to describe the role that pain and suffering have played in the development of character and spiritual formation among so many senior pastors and chief executive officers. In fact, when I counsel ministry leaders who are approaching retirement, I ask if they have ever endured a “dark night of the soul” experience. The majority of them have, and with vexing pain they recount their experiences to me. They often refer to them as the most painful periods of their careers and yet the best seasons of their lives. Such a paradox indeed!

Those who are enduring such a season of spiritual intimacy with God experience an inability to sleep, a feeling of being isolated from God in their prayer life, loss of appetite, stress, depression, anxiety, a profound awareness of their sin, and a general sense of not being in control.

John Coe, an expert on the process of spiritual formation and a colleague of mine at Talbot School of Theology, has been studying this phenomenon for many years. He believes God has very specific and deeply personal reasons for the soul when placing the individual in the dark night. He writes, “The following two specific goals he has for believers at such a time are: first, to assist them in letting go of something that they trust in more than Him (e.g., the spiritual disciplines), and secondly, to encourage them toward a deeper trust in Him without any corresponding pleasurable feeling or experience.”[22]

Seminary professor and therapist Chuck DeGroat writes about this experience in the life of pastors and says, “In our North American context, failure and struggle are often viewed as problems, jagged detours on what is supposed to be the smooth, straight road of life. It’s a distinctly Western phenomenon, but one that subtly impacts our Christian perceptions. Thus, many pastors feel as if depression, doubt, or distance from God amount to obstacles to ministry, rather than opportunities for it.”[23] He goes on to describe what he feels are God’s purposes for the dark night experience. He states, “The purpose of the dark night, of course, is to strip us of our futile attempts to find God on our own terms and awaken us to a much simpler desire for intimacy with God.”[24]

In her book When God Walks Away, Kaye McKee writes that the purifying process of the dark night is so effective in the soul that “we emerge from the dark night with new resolve to make God our one and only desire.”[25] One psychiatrist and spiritual director asserts its purpose succinctly: “It is the secret way in which God not only liberates us from our attachments and idolatries, but also brings us to the realization of our true nature.”[26]

According to St. John, “three signs indicate a dark night, and for the experience to be an authentic dark night, all three signs must be present at the same time: first, a sense of dryness in one’s spiritual life; second, a difficult time praying in one’s usual way, sometimes even an inability to pray; and third, a growing desire to be alone in loving awareness of God.”[27]

It is not unusual for a particular crisis event to occur to precipitate the start of such a spiritually traumatic season of training. Such events that I have come across in my counseling include being unexpectedly terminated from employment, a severe financial setback, the loss of a parent, the birth of a special-needs child, marital crises, etc. For many ministry leaders, these events have opened the door to a significant season of soul searching and deep personal introspection. For those who are courageous enough to embrace this phase of ministry training, it yields a deeper intimacy with God and broader horizon of impact in the lives of those whom they are called to serve.

And what of our own pain and suffering? What is our response to this uninvited guest along our path to spiritual maturity? Tim Keller, in his recent book Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, suggests a course of action that includes reflection, a spirit of thankfulness, and responding through love. Sittser summarizes, “We can also think, thank, and love, which will enable us to endure and mature. Thinking requires us to focus our minds on the eternal truths revealed in the biblical story. Though we will never be able to think our way out of suffering, it is possible—and helpful—to think about the biblical truths that make our suffering comprehensible. Thanking, in turn, forces us to reorder our loves and relocate our glory, turning our attention to the One who bends suffering to his glory and our benefit. Loving means pursuing the virtue that reflects God’s nature most perfectly. God chose the way of love in the Cross; we can, too, in our suffering.”[28]

DeGroat concludes his article with these words: “But also consider this moment to be an opportunity to see what Jesus may be up to in your life, or in the lives of those you counsel [or teach]. What you might find is that you’re being invited into the glorious purging of the dark night, where the old self and its old loves are shed and replaced by a new and deeper love for Jesus, for others, and even for you.”[29]

What we have seen from this cursory review of Scripture is that the heart of God, that steadfast will and longing desire of our heavenly Father, is to call out to the lost and broken of our world, to gently whisper an invitation in their ear to come into an intimate and deeply personal relationship with their Creator. We see that for some, many of whom were unsuspecting and unprepared, God initiated a call on their lives to represent him before the lost and needy world around them. Those who, in spite of their objections and hesitations, accepted God’s call were ushered into a season of ministry preparation that often included a period of pain and suffering. This experience, though confusing and mystifying to most, resulted in a closer personal intimacy with God and a broader horizon of ministry opportunities. Such was certainly the case for contemporary ministry leaders such as Corrie ten Boom, Joni Erickson Tada, Steve Saint, and a host of others.

To ministry leaders, you who have accepted his call on your lives into vocational service, let me provide you with a glimpse into your future. If you desire to be used by God to impact the lives of those in this world who are broken, forsaken, and downtrodden, you yourself must be prepared to walk that path. It will be out of your own pain and suffering that God may choose to use you to relieve the suffering of others. David Powlison puts it this way, “When you’ve passed through your own fiery trials, and found God to be true to what he says, you have real help to offer. You have firsthand experience of both his sustaining grace and his purposeful design. He has kept you through pain; he has reshaped you more into his image. . . . What you are experiencing from God, you can give away in increasing measure to others. You are learning both the tenderness and the clarity necessary to help sanctify another person’s deepest distress.”[30]

Once again today, we note that God is anything but predictable. He chooses whom he wants for reasons known only to himself. A select few he also invites into specific ministry that requires focused attention to the study and proclamation of his Word. This requires formal instruction and intense dedication. Seminary training is not designed to be easy or stress-free. If you can’t handle this pressure now, you certainly won’t be able to handle what’s awaiting you after graduation. But know this, at some point along your journey of personal spiritual formation and ministry service, you will encounter a season of pain and suffering—some perhaps brought on by your own decisions, some brought on by the sovereignty of God himself. During those lonely and isolating times, trust in God’s ability to carry you through them. Never forget Psalm 34:8: “The Lord is good.”

I close with a reading of Psalm 121, known as the Pilgrim Song, from The Message:

I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

He won’t let you stumble, your Guardian God won’t fall asleep. Not on your life! Israel’s Guardian will never doze or sleep.

God’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you—Shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you from moonstroke.

God guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always.

Notes

1. Hans W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament (London: SCM, 1974), 56.
2. Frank E. Gaebelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), 52.
3. Benson Commentary on Genesis, http://biblehub.com/commentaries/benson/genesis/3.htm.
4. Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985), 934.
5. Ibid., 935.
6. Gaebelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 2:318.
7. David Guzik, “1 Samuel 16—God Chooses David,” Enduring Word Commentary, 2013, https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/1-samuel-16/.
8. Ibid.
9. Ann K. Ratcliffe, “Brace Yourself Jeremiah! Answering God’s Call with Our Lives,” Unity, January 1994, http://www.unity.org/resources/articles/brace-yourself-jeremiah-answering-gods-call-our-lives.
10. Steven Mason, “Ezekiel 1–17, ” Theology of Work Project Online Materials, Theology of Work Project, Inc., https://www.theologyofwork.org/old-testament/ezekiel/ezekiel-1–17.
11. Gordon Preece, “Vocation in Historical-Theological Perspective,” Theology of Work Project Online Materials, Theology of Work Project, Inc., https://www.theo-logyofwork.org/auxiliary-pages/vocation-depth-article.
12. Bob Deffinbaugh, “David Becomes Israel’s King,” https://bible.org/seriespage/18-david-becomes-israel-s-king-1-samuel-16–2-samuel-10#P2589_941144.
13. Into Action, “How Many Quit? Estimating the Clergy Attrition Rate,” http://into-action.net/research/many-quit-estimating-clergy-attrition-rate/.
14. Tina Dirmann, “Pastoral Pressures Test Faith,” Los Angeles Times, January 29, 1999, http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jan/29/local/me-2802.
15. Richard J. Krejcir, “Statistics on Pastors,” Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership, 2007, http://www.truespirituality.org/.
16. Ibid.
17. E. Allison Peers, Spirit of Flame: A Study of St. John of the Cross (New York: Morehouse-Gorham, 1944), 4.
18. Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1993), 33.
19. Saint John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, trans. E. Allison Peers (New York: Image, 1990).
20. Sherryl Stone, “A Crisis of Faith,” Christianity Today, December 2008, par. 1.
21. R. Neal Gray, “Dark Night of the Soul, Crisis of Faith, and Implications for Pastoral Leadership” (PhD diss., Capital Seminary, 2017), 2.
22. John H. Coe, “Musings on the Dark Night of the Soul: Insights from St. John of the Cross on a Developmental Spirituality,” Journal of Psychology and Theology 28, no. 4 (2000): 293–307.
23. Chuck DeGroat, “3 Truths about the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’: A Painful and Profound Reality That Shatters Illusions,” Christianity Today, February 23, 2015, par. 8.
24. Ibid., par. 11.
25. Kaye P. McKee, When God Walks Away: A Companion for the Journey through the Dark Night of the Soul (New York: Crossroad, 2006), 91.
26. Gerald G. May, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection between Darkness and Spiritual Growth (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 67.
27. Daniel P. Schrock, The Dark Night: A Gift of God (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 2009), 17.
28. Gerald L. Sittser, “Tim Keller on Enduring Suffering without Losing Hope,” Christianity Today, January 8, 2014, par. 11.
29. DeGroat, “3 Truths about the ‘Dark Night of the Soul,” par. 14.
30. David Powlison, “God’s Grace and Your Sufferings,” in Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, ed. John Piper and Justin Taylor (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006), 166.