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Chapter-a-Day

Of Covenant and Mystery

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The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV)

One of the most painful and difficult seasons of my earthly journey was the dissolution of my first marriage. It’s not a dull, focused pain, but a sharp one that branches in many directions. There are so many places it touches. There are my own personal failings and poor choices. There is the 20-20 hindsight of the many things I could have and should have said and/or done – things to which I was woefully blind at the time. There are the painful consequences and ripple effects that the end of the marriage thrust upon one another, our daughters, and those in our circles of relationship.

I remember two very strong and honest reactions from our young teen daughters at the time. I found these two to be ironic opposites. On one hand, they had seen and perceived more than I realized. A piece of them was not surprised. On the other hand, there was a desire — shot out like a demand — to know everything. A teenager’s personal Freedom of Information Act petition, proclaiming her right to know everything about the breakdown of her parents’ marriage.

What was received was disappointment. Some things might be shared and understood with time, maturity, and life experience. Time and distance is required for some things to be viewed in proper context. And, there are other things that will remain hidden, things understood only by the two who shared them.

On this life journey, not everything is meant to be known.

In today’s chapter, Moses stands before all of the Hebrews and ratifies God’s covenant with them. The Jordan River flowing behind him and the Promised Land in the distance, the ancient leader says, “Before you cross, look back.”

This chapter ratifies the covenant anew—not just for those who saw Egypt crack open, but for everyone standing there… and everyone yet unborn.

Blessing and curse are laid bare. Obedience brings life like rain on dry ground; rebellion brings rot, exile, and future nations asking, “What happened here?”

And then comes the line that purrs and growls at the same time:

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever…”

Mystery stays veiled. Responsibility does not.

One of the most profound truths I’ve had to learn to embrace as a follower of Jesus is that mystery is intimately woven into the journey.

Some eyes see but don’t perceive.
Some ears hear but don’t understand.
Some things are hidden, even from God’s own Son.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Matthew 24:36 (NIV)

Some things remain a mystery. The angsty teenager within me filing my own personal Freedom of Information Act petitions with my heavenly Father had to learn to live with disappointment.

Further in my journey, I found that disappointment eventually gave way to humility and faith. As I attempt to follow in Jesus’ footsteps I find in His own example a peace and complete trust to leave certain knowledge with the Father, despite what I might argue is His divine right to demand it.

That final verse of today’s covenant renewal falls like a gentle, holy hand on my shoulder this morning:

I am not required to solve God.
I am required to respond to Him.

Some things remain veiled. That’s okay.
But what has been revealed—love God, walk humbly, choose life—that belongs to me. Today. Right now.

So with humility and faith, I sign my name again in the quiet.
And I walk into a new work week embraced by covenant and mystery.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

Bad Motorcycle, Better Covenant

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https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ZJESYyjKSgNI5ynr06Jz3?si=lvzs8LXvS9a7zYAHu7PgRw

“However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you…”
Deuteronomy 28:15 (NIV)

Yesterday at breakfast, Wendy and I discussed an article she’d read about a string of women who became adulterous lovers of a serial adulterer. When later on life’s road the serial adulterer gained a certain amount of notoriety, the women determined to make their former lothario into their scapegoat. They are determined to ruin his life as they blame him for ruining theirs.

Fascinating.

As I meditated on the situation, what I saw in between the lines of the news article was the chaos and the unraveling of life that comes with journeying down the road of infidelity and adultery. The line I love to quote about the path of adultery is from Bob Dylan. He sings that it’s “like a bad motorcycle with the devil in the seat, going 90 miles-and-hour down a dead end street.”

Believe me, you don’t want that ride.

Today’s chapter is arguably as tough as it gets when it comes to harsh Old Testament language. It’s the kind of chapter that causes modern readers to close the book and walk away. There’s so much going on beneath the surface of this chapter that I could write an entire book unpacking it—but let me try to do it succinctly.

Today’s chapter follows a well-established pattern of what we call an Ancient Near Eastern suzerainty treaty. A suzerainty was a dominant king who, in expanding his empire, would take over foreign cities and people groups. They became his vassals. The suzerainty treaty was one the king would make with vassals he’d conquered and who were now under his sovereignty and protection. These treaties had a distinct pattern they followed, and one of the pieces of that pattern was to briefly explain the blessings the vassals would experience by being faithful to their new king followed by a long host of agonizing consequences they would experience if they were unfaithful.

Today’s chapter follows the exact pattern of these suzerainty treaties, with God as the suzerain and the Hebrews as the people he’s entering into a covenant with. It was intended by the ancients to act like a prenuptial agreement. It briefly highlights the blessings the bride could expect in the relationship (life, abundance, provision, blessing) and then goes to great lengths describing in the harshest terms the unraveling that comes with infidelity and disobedience (death, destitution, poverty, chaos).

The suzerain was saying “You don’t want to hop on the back of that motorcyle.”

Now, hang with me because it gets better. I know that in the Great Story everything is connected, and today’s chapter is no different. The primary difference between typical suzerain treaties and today’s chapter is that the suzerain was typically a distant monarch sitting on his foreign throne. God has drawn up the covenant in the covenant language the Hebrews were used to, but He isn’t distant. He’s right there in the middle of their camp. He showed up and introduced Himself. He delivered them from Egypt then joined them on their wilderness journey. The blessings and curses presented are not from a distant, conquering foreign king but a divine suitor who for 40 years has been wooing them. God wants a good marriage with this people.

By the time you reach Deuteronomy 28, Israel already has a problem baked into the dough.

The covenant assumes:
A faithful people
A loyal vassal
A nation that listens, obeys, trusts

But Scripture immediately begins narrating the truth:
The Hebrews cannot sustain covenant faithfulness.

The blessings are glorious – but the curses become prophetic autobiography.

The Old Testament tension is not:
“Will God be faithful?”
It’s:
“Can Israel be?”
And the answer—generation after generation throughout the Great Story—is a weary, sheepish “no.”

When the Son of God appears on the scene, He doesn’t come as the suzerain King but as an every day carpenter — just another one of the vassals. As a human being, Jesus walks the same path as the Hebrews, but with fidelity.

Hebrews —> 40 years in the wilderness grumbling, testing God
Jesus —> 40 days in the wilderness, tempted but faithful

And when Jesus responds to the devil’s temptation, He quotes — wait for it — Deuteronomy.

He doesn’t invent a new covenant language. He fulfills the old one.

Suzerainty treaties assumed:
Loyalty
Exclusive allegiance
Submission to the greater king

Jesus refuses:
Political shortcuts
Coercive power
Empire without obedience

He won’t reach for an earthly throne.
He won’t grasp.
He won’t rebel.
That restraint?
That’s vassal faithfulness.

In today’s chapter:
Obedience earns blessing
Disobedience triggers curse

Jesus:
Lives perfect obedience
Deserves full blessing
Receives the curse anyway

Exile. Shame. Abandonment. Death outside the city. The faithful vassal takes the consequences of the unfaithful people. That’s not legal trickery.
That’s covenant love with skin on.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”
Galatians 3:13

This means my relationship with God is not sustained by:
Perfect obedience
White-knuckled faithfulness
Fear of slipping into curse

It’s sustained by participation—showing up at the table, taking a seat, and choosing to stay.

It’s not about performance. I don’t earn blessing.
I inhabit it—because Jesus already stood where I couldn’t.
Obedience becomes response, not requirement.
Faithfulness becomes gratitude, not terror.
And Deuteronomy 28 stops sounding like a threat…

…and starts sounding like a story that finally found its hero.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

The Knife, the Cradle, and the Cross

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It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.
Deuteronomy 13:4 (NIV)

For twelve chapters Moses’ deathbed message for his people has lovingly poured out of his heart. Remember, remember, remember the God who introduced Himself to you, the God who made a covenant with you and your ancestors, the God who delivered you from your chains, the God who miraculously provided and protected you, and the God who has promised you hope and a future.

Moses reminds his children and grandchildren through these twelve chapters that their relationship with God is a marriage. God has perpetually wooed, courted, delivered, provided, protected, and guided. What He asks of His bride is faithfulness. This is Moses at his most intense.

Moses poses three scenarios.

A prophet arrives with signs and wonders that appear to be the calling card of divine authority. Bedazzlement then gives way to the whisper of seduction. The prophet suggests they worship other gods.

An intimate family member whom you love deeply and trust implicitly suggests that together you worship other gods.

An entire community of people within your tribe chooses to follow and worship other gods and it becomes part of the community’s acceptable culture.

Notice that none of these seductions come from outside. They arise from within—religion, family, and community.

The response prescribed is uncompromising: resist, expose, remove. Loyalty to YHWH is not negotiable, not sentimental, not softened by affection or awe. The chapter ends with a repeated refrain: “So all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.”

Today’s chapter is jarring, especially at the beginning of the week of Christmas as I hum O Little Town of Bethlehem. Yet one of the things that I’ve discovered about this Great Story is that everything connects.

It is easy sitting in my 21st century context listening to soft Christmas piano music on my computer to think that today’s chapter is the antithesis of Jesus. Only if I’m selective in my hearing of Jesus’ words. The reality is that Jesus embraced and extended the covenant as marriage metaphor. He repeated an uncompromising demand for fidelity, and warned of the consequences of faithlessness. He repeatedly channeled the serious, uncompromising truth of Deuteronomy 13.

Whether it’s prophets:

“For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.See, I have told you ahead of time. “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”
Matthew 24:24-28 (NIV)

Or intimate family members:

“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Matthew 10:36-38 (NIV)

Or community:

Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.”
Matthew 11:20-22 (NIV)

Or even myself:

 “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
Matthew 5:29-30 (NIV)

Jesus does not dilute the command to love God alone; He intensifies it.

But here is the turn that happens at Bethlehem. Jesus, the Bridegroom of heaven, leaves heaven behind and comes to humanity. He arrives, not only to woo and court His bride, but also to pay the bride price.

Where Deuteronomy polices faithfulness from the outside, Jesus transforms it from the inside.

The battle moves from execution to examination. From purging towns to purifying hearts. The idol is no longer a carved figure—it’s whatever claims ultimacy. Whatever replaces affection and fidelity. Whatever becomes that which I care about more than the One who cared so much for me:

Power. Nation. Certainty. Distraction. Entertainment. Even religion itself.

And instead of destroying the seducer, Christ absorbs the cost of human unfaithfulness into His own body.

The knife becomes a cross.
The warning becomes a wound.
Love bleeds instead of legislates.

Deuteronomy 13 is not asking me whom I would stone.
It is asking me what I would refuse—even if it came wrapped in love, success, or certainty.

Deuteronomy demands clarity.
Christmas whispers comfort.

Together they ask a single, piercing question:

What has the power to lead my heart away – even gently?

This week as I stand at the manger, the text invites a holy audit:

What voice do I trust because it dazzles?
What affection do I excuse because it’s familiar?
What belief do I protect because it flatters me?

The babe wrapped in swaddling clothes will not compete for my loyalty.
He will simply lie there—vulnerable, unarmed—waiting to see if my love still knows His name.

And if I listen closely, beneath both Moses’ warnings and a chorus of angels, I hear the same ancient invitation of a Bridegroom:

Choose life.
Choose love.
Choose the One who refuses to seduce—and instead, saves.

And so, I enter this week of Christmas with a heart that is not just floating with sentimentality, but anchored in the sobriety of a Love who’s sacrifice “demands my life, my soul, my all.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

What’s In a Name?

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https://open.spotify.com/episode/2i8w5uaaSLZsRs8CbW2Se6?si=ZxNL_HKBSDi-2kWPF65_Yw

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
Deuteronomy 7:6 (NIV)

One of the things I love about living in a small town is being known. I love walking into a restaurant, a coffee shop, or the pub and being greeted by name. I suppose some people like to be anonymous, but research consistently shows that most of us truly want to know and be known. And the beginning of that relational journey is simply knowing one another by name.

The subject of names has been surfacing a lot in my conversations of late. My local gathering of Jesus’ followers is working on a short-term initiative intended to help people learn one another’s names. I just read a fantastic article about the neuroscience that proves just how powerful using a person’s name truly is. I talk about it in business all of the time as I deliver customer service training.

One of the things that I have learned about name-use over the years is that the deeper and more intimate the relationship the more likely we are to create nicknames and pet names for one another. Conversely, as relationships break down and marriages move toward divorce we stop using one another’s names and revert to using pronouns or impersonal descriptors like “my children’s mother.” Wendy is “my treasure.” From the very beginning of our relationship, it’s been a special moniker that is hers and only hers. Between the two of us it is a sign of affection, devotion, honor, and fidelity.

Today’s chapter is one of those chapters that is misunderstood in modern cultural context. It’s a love letter disguised as a battle plan. God reminds Israel that their chosenness isn’t about muscle or merit, but about affection and fidelity. They are to enter the land clear-eyed and clear-hearted—no half-measures, no flirtations with rival gods. Destruction of idols isn’t cruelty; it’s fidelity therapy.

God promises protection, fruitfulness, and flourishing—not as wages earned, but as the natural overflow of covenant intimacy. Obedience here is not stiff-backed compliance; it’s trust leaning its full weight into the arms of a faithful Lover.

In Jewish tradition, Deuteronomy 7 is foundational for the concept of segulah—Israel as God’s treasured possession (v.6). This chosenness is not superiority; it is purpose and calling. Israel is set apart for something: to bear God’s name and reveal Him and His character in the world.

This covenant love is a foreshadowing of Jesus, who loved the world so much that He left heaven behind and became one of us. He treasured us so much that He suffered and died to pay the penalty for our sin. Then He called us to bear witness of God’s Kingdom through our love of Him and others.

The contrast could not be clearer.

The world chooses powerful.
God prefers the weak.
The world finds security in big numbers.
God prefers faith in a few.
The world indulges in surface sensual appetites.
God prescribes deep, exclusive and intimate relationship.
The world values self-centered personal ambition.
God values faithfully putting others ahead of ourselves.

In both today’s chapter and Jesus’ example, it is God who loves first. It is God who makes the covenant. It is God who promises fidelity, provision, protection, and blessing. We are the object of His love and affection.

We are His treasure.

He whispers, “My life for yours.”

When God speaks of loving His people in verses 7 and 8, the Hebrew word is ‘ahav. It is not a giddy infatuation, it’s a choice and a volitional act. In verse 9 God’s ‘ahav blesses a thousand generations of those who ‘ahav Him. God’s love invites reciprocity. Not because it needs it, but because it awakens it. And notice: God’s covenant loyalty flows toward those who love him—not as payment, but as shared intimacy.

This is mutual devotion, not transactional obedience.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that God says that those who choose to follow have their names written in the Book of Life. My name is there. God knows my name. But today’s chapter reminds me that my name being written in the Book of Life is far more than just a “Hello My Name Is” name tag knowledge. That’s just the record like Wendy’s and my marriage certificate in the safe downstairs. I am God’s “treasure.” He gave His life that I might live. That kind of love awakens love in me.

Less Hallmark card, more keeping marriage vows at 3 a.m.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

Second Marriage

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“We assume the responsibility for carrying out the commands…”
Nehemiah 10:32a (NIV)

Among some of the historical family ephemera in my personal archives is a marriage certificate for my great-grandparents. The certificate is for their second wedding. They were married, then got divorced, and then got remarried. Ironically, I think I have the second marriage certificate for our daughter, as well. It’s funny how history repeats itself.

Some relationships are like that. They work, and then they don’t, and then the parties work through their differences and return to covenant. They recommit.

In today’s chapter, Nehemiah and the returned Hebrew exiles in Jerusalem return to their covenant with God. It’s a covenant that God refers to as a marriage on numerous occasions. In essence, the document that they sign and seal is a new marriage certificate. In yesterday’s chapter they confessed that they had broken faith and walked away from the marriage. Now, they are getting remarried.

In this marriage certificate, Nehemiah lists a number of things to which they are committing to make the relationship work. They agree to live according to the principles God laid out in the Law of Moses, to keep the sabbath, to be generous, and to be faithful to the system of worship God prescribed.

Nehemiah 10 invites me to ask not just “What do I believe?” but “What am I willing to commit to — publicly, practically, persistently?” The ink on Nehemiah’s covenant scroll reminds me that faith needs form the way that saying “I do” at the wedding needs daily relational acts that put flesh on the commitment. Promises whispered in private take root when I bind them to community, to habit, to rhythm.

I’m reminded in the quiet this morning that my relationship with God is a marriage, and each new day is like my own “signing day.” It’s a daily covenant renewal of the soul:

  • To rest when the world demands endless work.
  • To give generously when culture teaches us to hoarding.
  • To honor sacred time and sacred space.
  • To live and love distinctively, not for separation’s sake, but so that light may be visible in the dark.

Nehemiah and the Hebrews’ story is really a love story between God and a people saying again: “We’re still yours.” And that’s a sentiment I whisper in my actions each day to both God and Wendy.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

No Excuse

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[An elder] must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)
1 Timothy 3: 4-5 (NIV)

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’m currently working on a book about my work. The working title is This Call May Be Monitored with a subtitle What Eavesdropping on Corporate America taught me about business and life. Over 30 years I’ve evaluated around 100,000 phone calls and trained individuals and teams how to improve the customer experience. It’s been a quirky career. I have learned a lot of lessons worth sharing, and as the subtitle says, many of those lessons apply to both business and life. This morning’s chapter brought one to mind that I was just writing about yesterday.

When working with clients who primarily serve internal customers (team members from their own company) or regular customers they talk to every day, I will often be told “All of this customer service stuff doesn’t apply to me. I talk to this person everyday,” or “I don’t serve customers. It’s just another employee.” The subtext of these statements is that the more you know a person and the closer you are to them means you shouldn’t have to treat them with the courtesy and quality that you would a complete stranger who calls. Follow this reasoning to its logical end and it’s a justification for putting on appearances for outsiders while you excuse treating the most important people in your life poorly.

As I observed this happening at work, it caused me to personally reevaluate my own thoughts and behaviors at home. Shouldn’t my family and my closest friends get the best of me? Why would I ever conclude that I’m excused from rude, discourteous, disrespectful, and mean behavior at home simply because it’s family? I think Wendy, my children, and my grandchildren should get the best of my love, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and self-control.

This prompted me to start saying “thank you” to Wendy every time I walk into the kitchen and find her doing laundry. I’ve shared that with individuals who responded, “That’s crazy. Why would I thank my spouse for something that’s just expected?” Because I’m grateful for all Wendy does for me. I want her to know how much I appreciate it. A simple “thank you” costs me nothing but has slowly changed our marriage and our household into a more courteous, appreciative, and loving environment.

In today’s chapter, Paul instructs young Timothy regarding the qualifications for leadership in the local gathering of Jesus’ followers in Ephesus. The highest rung in the evolving local leadership structure at that point of the Jesus Movement is translated “Overseer,” “Elder,” and sometimes “Bishop.” Paul makes the point that anyone who holds this position must “manage his family well.”

In the ancient world, the household (Greek: oikos) was the fundamental social unit. A leader who could manage his household well demonstrated the ability to manage the “household of God” (the church). This wasn’t just about kids behaving at the dinner table—it was about practicing justice, hospitality, and responsibility in the daily microcosm of family life.

Along my life journey, I’ve observed and worked with many men in church leadership who interpret Paul’s words as an excuse to bully, browbeat, and tyrannize their wife and children in the name of “controlling” or “managing” the household. I’ve never understood how anyone could think that this is what Jesus desires or expects. But those are extreme cases.

In the quiet this morning, I’m thinking that the more common and far more insidious problem lies in the more subtle mindset in which I believe I’m excused from treating my family with the best I’ve got when it comes to courtesy, servant-heartedness, respect, and kindness.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to spend some quality time with the most important person in my life.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

“We Must Be Cautious”

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While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.
Numbers 25:1-3 (NIV)

I get it. The ancient episodes in the Great Story are often strange, confusing, and even offensive to modern political and cultural sensibilities. Yet, lying behind the veil of time are deep spiritual implications that are as relevant today as they have ever been. Today’s chapter is one of those.

We’ve just been through two chapters telling the story of Balaam the spiritual guru for hire who was contracted by Balak the King of Moab to curse the Hebrew tribes camped outside his kingdom. Balaam failed and returned home. So it would appear that Balaam has exited the story and the events of today’s chapter are unrelated.

But they’re not.

In today’s chapter, men from the Hebrew camp begin flirting with some women from Moab. They are invited for a meal, which turns into some wild parties that turn into sexual orgies. The Hebrew men are then invited to go to the Moabite’s pagan church with their new girlfriends, make some sacrifices, and participate in the pagan rituals. The men shrug and follow along.

Hard stop.

At this point, I find it important for me to remember that God sees his covenant relationship with the Hebrew people as a marriage. They were slaves crying out in Egypt. He showed up. He redeemed them. He delivered them. He agreed to dwell among them in the center of the camp, provide food and water, provide protection, and promised them a great home and life. Thus, God made a covenant with them to be their God and they His people. Husband and wife. This literal covenant agreement came with a prenup that listed 10 major items. At the top of the list: “You’ll have no other gods.” Fidelity. Faithfulness. I redeem, save, provide, protect, and bless and in exchange I want you to honor me by being faithful to me.

So, when the boys from the Hebrew tribes willingly choose to be seduced, led astray, and shrug off the top item on their prenup with God, it’s not just a small thing.

And, the events of today’s chapter were not a random case of multicultural curiosity and innocent lust gone astray. The seduction was a Moabite plot rooted in the counsel of guess who? Balaam, the spiritual guru.

Fast forward to John’s Revelation at the end of the Great Story. In His dictated letter to the believers in the city of Pergamum, Jesus writes through John: “You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.”

Balak was mad at Balaam for not cursing the Hebrews. Balaam offered the Moabite King some parting advice: “If you can’t curse them, corrupt them.”

So, as I meditate on these things in the quiet this morning, I find in the sordid and bloody Moabite seduction an apt spiritual reminder for myself. After all, Jesus carried the spiritual marriage metaphor forward. He is the bridegroom while I and all of my fellow believers are His bride. He came and paid the bride price with His own life to make an eternal covenant with me. He redeemed me, saved me, offered me protection, provision, blessing, and promise. I don’t want to be unfaithful and dishonor that love and commitment.

Yet Jesus warned His followers the night before His crucifixion that the enemy, while standing condemned, will never be idle. Jesus’ blood and sacrifice forever protect me from the enemies curse. But the enemy knows Balaam’s counsel: “If you can’t curse them. Corrupt them.”

As I think about entering another day of the journey in this fallen world, the sage voice of Obi-wan Kenobi just flit into my mind:

“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy…We must be cautious!”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

Time to Forget

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Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

Over the past few years, Wendy and I have discovered a difference in the way we perceive and approach life. As we have dug into it, it’s allowed us to learn about ourselves and to better understand one another. It has to do with our orientation to time.

I have a strong orientation towards the past. I’m a lover of history. I have spent much of my life digging into I and my family’s genealogy. As I contemplate current events, I tend to seek the past for context. Even as I look to the future I tend to look to the past for patterns that might inform where things are headed.

Wendy, on the other hand, is very much future oriented. Her brain is constantly looking a step or two ahead and it informs both her present tasks and their relative priorities. Life for Wendy is a constant anticipation of what is next, while I give little thought to it.

Our very different orientations towards time often creates clashes in how we function both independently and in relationship. Knowing these differences has allowed us to be more empathetic and understanding towards one another.

This past week our local gathering of Jesus’ followers focused our thoughts on Jesus’ words in the Lord’s Prayer: “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Wendy and I spent some time talking about forgiveness and resentment, exploring whether or not we have truly forgiven those who have hurt us in the past.

As we continued our conversation, Wendy began quizzing me about a couple of individuals in my own life story who have been the source of considerable struggle for me. As we discussed these individuals and I have continued to meditate on my relationship with them and their impact on my life, it has struck me that my time orientation towards the past might lend itself to unhealthy thought patterns.

In today’s chapter, Paul references his own past and as a disciple of Jesus he had a lot of baggage. Once the most rabid enemy of Jesus and His followers, Paul had the blood of martyrs on his hands. Paul oversaw the stoning of Stephen. It is unknown how many other individuals suffered, were imprisoned, or died as a result of Paul’s zealous persecution of the Jesus Movement, but it is certainly likely that at least some of the opposition he constantly faced linked back to the suffering he once inflicted on others.

This came to mind as I read Paul’s words in today’s chapter:

“But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.“

I happen to be entering a new stretch of my life journey. Old things are passing away. New things are emerging. As this happens, I am reminded by Paul’s words that I need to spiritually strain against my natural time orientations which often keep me mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually mired in what lies behind. There are some things on the road behind me that I need to forget in order to focus my mental, emotional, and spiritual energies on straining toward what is ahead.

Fortunately, I’m married to a partner whose natural orientation toward time can help me with that.

I will be on the road for a few days on business. I plan to return on Friday. Have a great couple of days.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

To Know Better

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I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
Ephesians 1:17 (NIV)

Yesterday at my desk I received an invite on my computer. The invitation came from Wendy asking to meet for a pre-dinner beverage downstairs in the Vander Well Pub. As we settled in at the bar, Wendy said she wanted to discuss a question I raised in a message I gave yesterday amidst our local gathering of Jesus’ followers. The message was about prayer, and specifically about the phrase Jesus used in teaching His disciples to pray: “give us this day our daily bread.” The question I raised in the message was “What is/are the thing(s) with which you struggle most to trust God?”

Wendy wanted to have a V-Dub Pub conversation to talk about each of our answers to that question.

I have to tell you that the conversation got gut-level honest and transparent. As we talked about some of the (admittedly stupid) things that I struggle to trust God for, the onion of my soul got peeled back a few layers deeper. I confess that it was uncomfortable, even though there is no one on this earth who knows me, my struggles, and my foibles as well as Wendy does. She loves me anyway. It was a good conversation, even if it was uncomfortable. As we headed upstairs to make dinner we knew one another a bit better, and we had been given the opportunity to extend grace to one another in expressing our love for one another despite our respective faith struggles.

Today our chapter-a-day journey continues through Paul’s “Prison Letters” which were written while he was under house arrest in Rome. With time on his hands waiting for Caesar to hear his case, Paul took the opportunity to pen letters to the local gatherings of Jesus’ followers he’d established in his travels. With the exception of the personal letter to Philemon, the Prison Letters were written to address entire gatherings of people. As with the letter to the Colossians that we just finished on this chapter-a-day trek, Paul intended his letter to the Ephesians to be read to the entire gathering for the purposes of teaching and instruction. He also expected that the local gatherings in different locations would exchange letters once they were read so that all the different local gatherings would benefit from the teaching and instructions Paul wrote to each.

In today’s opening chapter, Paul establishes that he’s got some mind-blowing spiritual truths he wants to lay on the believers in Ephesus. He’s going to expand their minds and hearts to think about God’s plans and purposes for life on a cosmic spiritual level. As he’s introducing this, he states that his purpose in doing so is so that the believers might “know [God] better.”

Which immediately took my mind to my message yesterday. I observed in my message that Jesus perpetually uses the metaphor of marriage to describe the relationship He wants to have with His followers. Jesus described Himself as “the bridegroom” and we as His “bride.” Like a marriage, Wendy and I communicate in different ways at different times for different relational purposes. Despite the many years that we have been married, and despite the fact that Wendy knows me better than anyone, there are still opportunities to sit at the bar, have a gut-level conversation, and peel back another layer of the onion of our souls.

There is always an opportunity to know one another better.

In the quiet this morning, I simply find myself acknowledging that after almost 45 years of relationship with Jesus I still have opportunity to know Him better. Perhaps I should set an appointment to meet Jesus in the V-Dub Pub for a conversation before dinner tonight.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

The Sex Thing

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The Sex Thing (CaD Lev 18) – Wayfarer

“You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.”
Leviticus 18:3 (NIV)

Sex is always such a hot topic. It is one of our most basic human appetites, and it is naturally one of the strongest and most pleasurable as it drives the perpetuation of life. Like all human appetites, we sinful human beings love to indulge it to excess.

We indulge our appetite for food into gluttony.
We indulge our appetite for rest into sloth.
We indulge our appetite for pride into vanity.
We indulge our appetite for daily provision into greed.

All of these appetites are natural and God-given. We need them for life. One of the insidious effects of Alzheimer’s Disease that I watched slowly destroy my mother’s body is the loss of appetite for food. She forgot that she was hungry. For the last several years of her life her diet consisted of some blueberry yogurt and chocolate nutritional drink. My dad had to practically force her to eat that, or she wouldn’t have eaten a thing. At one point she weighed under 90 pounds.

Our appetites are good and meant for our physical health and life. This includes our appetite for sex. God even dedicates an entire piece of the Great Story, Song of Solomon (a.k.a Song of Songs), to an ancient poem about the sexual appetites of young lovers. When I attended a fundamentalist Baptist Bible college I remember observing the professors contort themselves to explain all of the human sexuality out of the text, turning it into nothing more than a spiritual allegory. One of the problems I’ve observed with the institutional church is that it picks the things on which it focuses, and the subject of sex (other than prohibiting a few aspects of it) is avoided more than any other.

Of course, what makes our appetite for sex different than the other God-given appetites is that all the other appetites and our indulgence in them affect the people around us. Sex involves direct participation with another person. This adds potent and intense dynamics of human relationship, power, intimacy, and abuse.

Today’s chapter is all about sexual prohibitions that God gave to the ancient Hebrew people. Along my life journey, I’ve observed that only one verse of this chapter (the prohibition of homosexual sex) gets quoted or discussed today. That’s a shame, because the context in which that verse was given is, I think, important.

A couple of observations:

First, the list of sexual prohibitions in today’s chapter is preceded with a preamble. God makes it clear that all of the behaviors he’s about to prohibit are things that the Egyptians and Canaanite people groups indulge in. Sex was indulged in without boundary or restraint, and the bulk of the list of prohibitions have to do with incestuous relationships. The Egyptian royals were infamous for their practice of incest to “keep the bloodline pure.” King Tut was a classic example of the consequences, his body genetically disfigured and his life shortened.

Second, these were all patriarchal, male dominated cultures. Guess who drove the indulgence of sexual appetites out of their sheer power, authority, and domination in family and culture? [cue: looking in the mirror]

Third, the sexual appetite was designed by our Creator God for the perpetuation of life through reproduction. It is a physical appetite and it is pleasurable and intimate, but the ultimate physical result is new life. New life (a.k.a being “born again,” resurrection, redemption) is an overarching core theme of the entire Great Story that can’t be ignored. In the last hundred or so years of human history we’ve developed countless ways to indulge in the pleasure of our sexual appetites and mostly eliminate the possibility of new life. The ancients did not have this luxury. Today’s chapter also addresses the way the ancients dealt with the unwanted consequences of their sexual indulgences. They sacrificed their babies to gods like Molek. An appetite that was intended to perpetuate new life becomes a catalyst for systemic infanticide.

Fourth, while today’s chapter does briefly mention a prohibition of homosexual sex, it also clearly mentions a prohibition of adultery. A fundamentalist standing in protest of homosexuality who has committed or is committing adultery is a hypocrite. As Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin…”

Fifth, as I went through the list of prohibitions today, I wrote in the margin the names of individuals within the Great Story who committed the prohibitions. David committed adultery. Solomon with his hundreds of wives and concubines took adultery to even greater indulgent excesses. David’s son Amnon and daughter Tamar had an incestuous romance going before Amnon raped her (see my second point above). Jacob married rival sisters as prohibited in verse 20. A powerful and natural sexual appetite will naturally lead to sexual indulgence like an appetite for food will lead to gluttony at the church potluck. Spiritually, they are equal in their negative effects, but we tend to focus on one and ignore the other.

Finally, in the quiet this morning, God reminds the Hebrews at the beginning and ending of the chapter that He wants them to be different than all the sexually indulgent people around them. He wants them to exemplify and enjoy pleasurable, loving, intimate, and yes productive fulfillment of sexual appetites, avoiding the negative consequences of indulgence for themselves and those around them.

Enjoy fulfilling the appetite without indulging in excess. That’s a worthwhile endeavor for me as it relates to both my sexual appetite and all the others.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!