Alley-O

Alley-O.  “The big ship sails on the Alley-Alley-O / On the last day of September.” This week brings in the last day of September and its melodious nursery rhyme. Especially in verses two and three, the children’s song sings of the canals and ports, perhaps in Manchester, England, where a cargo captain considers risking the rough sailing conditions, apparently pressed by his boss to meet contractual agreements to depart before October 1^st when long-haul shipping usually shuts down for the winter. Verse two warns: “The captain says that it will never, never do / On the last day of September.” Pressed by finances into folly, verse three laments: “The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea / On the last day of September.”

This old song was often part of our children’s bedtime routine, but never verses two or three. Those verses are so sad that modern editors didn’t even print them in newer editions of Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes. Conceivably, older generations of children were able to sing sad songs without spoiling the fun, especially if they lived in Manchester, England, where the big ships would sometimes sink on the last day of September. Songs normalize tragedy.

The point, however, for this last week of September is neither nostalgia nor cultural commentary, but the power of a proverb. The highly refined ability to organize, analyze, and summarize complex information into a simple, memorable, and replicable saying is frankly rare and vastly special, yet so modest that it welcomes anonymity and being lost to folklore. “Proverb is the wit of one, and the wisdom of many” (Lord John Russell). The wise make complexity look easy, though it never is. Every culture has proverbs, such as: “haste makes waste,” and “fortune favors the bold,” but it is the unique contribution of biblical proverbs to fuse true wisdom with the fear of the Lord. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Prov. 9:10).

Biblical proverbs are sourced in revelation more than merely observation. While God affirms his wise sayings as the supreme examples of "wisdom from above” (James 3:17), the biblical and the cultural proverbs are not automatically antagonistic toward each other when common ground is shared. In fact, biblical writers occasionally acknowledge cultural proverbs as also coming from God, though indirectly and outside the process of the inspiration of Scripture. Paul comfortably knew and quoted from local poets (Acts 14:11-18; 17:22-28; Titus 1:12) without yielding to their authority. Solomon may have incorporated some proverbs from an Egyptian source, though Solomon clearly maintained editorial discretion. (Notice the “thirty sayings” in Proverbs 22:20, which seems to be an oblique reference to the thirty chapters of The Teaching of Amenemope, that loosely resemble Proverbs 22:17-23:14).

Using cultural proverbs is not theologically “wrong" if they are put to a better use. Even Egyptian gold comes from God’s mines, as Augustine of Hippo argued: “For, as the Egyptians had not only the idols and heavy burdens which the people of Israel hated and fled from, but also vessels and ornaments of gold and silver, and garments, which the same people when going out of Egypt appropriated to themselves, designing them for a better use” (On Christian Doctrine, Book II, Chapter 30). God’s wisdom, like God’s rain, falls upon both “the just and the unjust” alike (Matt. 5:45). Those who know God see him everywhere.

Jericho

Jericho. As is often the case, some of the subjects touched upon during our Sundays have a way of popping up throughout the week. It should not be a surprise that the same Jericho that has been in our summer sermon series in the book of Joshua appeared in last week’s international news. Part of this year’s 27 additions to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites is the ruin of the ancient city of Jericho (https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/unesco-jericho-ruins-tell-es-sultan/index.html). You can read about how, at its unveiling ceremony for the prestigious UNESCO list, the United Nations officials snubbed Jericho’s official host nation, Israel, by stating that the award went to Palestine.

Nevertheless, the infamous wall can be seen in the news article, brushed away carefully of its dust and sand by the archeologists. Of course, the ruined wall that is visible today (dating from 10^th Century B.C.) is not the wall that fell at the trumpet blasts of the priests of Israel. The older wall was leveled in approximately 1400 B.C. Certainly, by the time of King David (reigned 1010-970 B.C.), Jericho was again populated (2 Sam. 10:5), though arguably without a fortified wall since there was an ominous curse placed on the fool who would venture to rebuild the city. “Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates” (Josh. 6:26). Sadly, in stride with the idolatrous reign of King Ahab (874-853 B.C.), a man named Hiel rebuilt Jericho as a fortified city despite the curse. Predictably, the curse prevailed. “In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun” (1 Kings 16:34). Jericho was also near to the site, just across the Jordan River, where Elijah skipped death and was translated into heaven (2 Kings 2:4).

In the New Testament, Jericho was the place to where the character in the parable of the Good Samaritan headed before he was robbed (Luke 10:30). Jericho was visited by Jesus where he healed two blind men, one of whom was named Bartimaeus (Matt. 20:29; Luke 18:35). Jericho was also where the tax collector, Zaccheus, lived and climbed a tree to better see Jesus as he passed through on his way to the cross (Luke 19:3).

So, be careful what you study, for you may begin to see traces of it everywhere you look. The more you study, the more you see; the more you see, the more you want to study!

Wisdom from God

Wisdom From God. Information has never been so easily accessible, and knowledge has never been so readily available. In ten years, it is conceivable that such a claim could again be made. “Information itself is power,” wrote Sir Francis Bacon famously in Meditationes Sacrae (1597). Yet, with so many examples of informationally powerful know-it-alls, why is wisdom still so rare? It is because wisdom is not a by-product of collected data.

With one search, I can find out which viscosity of motor oil is best suited for a 5.3L V8 gasoline engine. Yet, on the bottle of that laboratory engineered motor oil it says in large letters, “DO NOT INGEST.” What kind of fool would even consider drinking motor oil to necessitate such a warning? Our surplus of knowledge cannot solve our deficit of wisdom. Information itself may be power, but wisdom does not always follow information. A smart fool is just as possible to find as an uneducated sage, whether Artificial Intelligence applies or not.

Wisdom is not built from data; it comes from God. Wisdom is not intellectually achieved, but spiritually received. In a real yet enigmatic sense, Jesus is the incarnation of the wisdom of God. “Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Wisdom is derivative from our relationship to the “only wise God” (Rom. 16:27). We could not attain wisdom, so Wisdom obtained us.

God mercifully beats us at our own game, using the wisdom (so called) of the world to thwart the wise. “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:19-21).

Alike Before the Lord

Alike Before the Lord. A well-established theme in the Bible is the plight and treatment, but also the wisdom and texture found in the life of the sojourner. One-hundred twenty times in the Old Testament, but only twice in the New Testament appear variations of the word sojourn. Yet of those two, one refers to Abraham’s physical descendants through Isaac as “sojourners in a land belonging to others” (Acts 7:6). Therefore, the only unique New Testament contribution to the subject of sojourning comes from Peter to the dispersed church, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Pet. 2:11). From this, the New Testament does not set aside sojourning as obsolete but continues affirming it unchanged from Abraham.

The remaining Old Testament verses, which would form an excellent side-study, elevate the sojourner without marginalizing the native-born citizen. Past Noah, every patriarch was a non-native sojourner: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and all his brothers, Moses, etc. Remarkably, however, God describes himself as “with” the sojourner (Lev. 25:23; Psa. 39:12), who “stands up” for them, “avenges” them when they are mistreated (Psa. 94:6, 16), “watches over” them (Psa. 146:9) and demands that his people do the same because “you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Exo. 22:21; 23:9; Lev. 19:34; Deut. 10:19; 23:7). Evidence of Job’s righteousness, and evidence of Judah’s unrighteousness, show forth in their treatments of the sojourner (Job 31:32; Jer. 7:6; Eze. 22:7, 29) like a litmus paper test.

Regarding capital punishment: “You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native” (Lev. 24:22). Regarding the Passover: “You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner and for the native” (Num. 9:14). Regarding offerings: “You and the sojourner will be alike before the Lord. One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns among you” (Num. 15:15). Regarding sin: “You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them” (Num. 15:29; see also the Cities of Refuge in Numbers 35).

The normal operating procedure of civil society in Israel—the very essence of the Law which goes beyond the letter of the Law—was “love the sojourner” (Deut. 10:19) or equally, “love your neighbor” (Lev. 19:18). Jesus joined this horizontal love for others, non-native sojourners as well as native-born brothers, with vertical love for the Lord as the apex of “all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40). Fantastically and finally, with reference to his future judgment of humankind, Jesus said, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked, and you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison, and you came to me” (Matt. 25:34-36). God was a sojourner, too, what a thought! Treatment of the sojourner does not generate righteousness, but it does give evidence of righteousness imputed.