Theology Evolved?

The Conclusion
So there we have it. We have seen that God has the amazing capacity to have victory regardless of how far (if at all) involved we are in his work. We have seen him work with Moses who feared that he was not an eloquent man in order to topple a kingdom. And despite the arrogance and pride of the elder’s of Israel we found that God could still defeat the philistines using an inanimate object. Finally, we have seen God work alongside his prophet Elijah to defeat the enemies of the faith and bring Israel into right relationship with God.
The last story is one God has tried to put forward on more than one occasion. It is the story of the faith of his soldiers moving forward and trusting in his ability to maintain them and bring about victory. We have seen this in the story of David and Goliath, Joshua and the battle of Jericho, and even the stories of the Apostle Paul. God moves with us, his victory is already assured. So with this I leave you with one final lesson.
The Lesson? God=Victory

The other lessons can be found at

Onward Christian Soldier 1.1
Onward Christian Soldier 1.2
Onward Christian Soldier 1.3

Elijah at Mount Carmel. (1 Kings 18)

It would be yet later in the days, when Israel was well into its kingships, that there would come a time for God to reveal himself before his people again. It was a time when the king of Israel, Ahab, had gone off to follow Jezebel and the prophets of Baal, taking Israel with him as a confused and very sheep like nation. This Jezebel had destroyed all but one hundred and one prophets. One of which lived off the land, and the other hundred lived in caves being taken care of by a man who had great fear of the Lord. The one was named Elijah. God had taken him aside and let him know that there would be a serious famine in the lands, and had led him to a brook where he would continually be able to drink, and God commanded the ravens to bring him food. Ahab was very well aware of Elijah, and had a feeling that Elijah was connected with the famine, So when it did come time for Elijah to go meet Ahab and speak to him about his evil transgressions that Ahab was not in the best of moods.
However, a prophet, a soldier of the most high God, is still not someone to be trifled with, and when Elijah lays out a contest for Ahab, the cocky king cannot turn it down. So all the people of Israel are brought to Mount Carmel, as well as the 450 prophets of Baal, for a showdown of godly proportions. And Elijah more or less just says he will allow the prophets of Baal to receive the kick off. He allows them to build their altar of wood, and take the choice ox, and then allows them to call upon Baal to light their altar and ox on fire. And of course being the amazing god that Baal is, he creates a giant pillar of flame consuming everything and Elijah as well… nope, nothing, not even after hours of calling. So Elijah feels free to encourage them reminding them that their God needs time to sleep, or even relieve himself so perhaps they should shout out to him. And they do so, mutilating themselves too because he delights in that, and this time the fire comes… again no.
So Elijah takes it upon himself to then rebuild the old altar of the Lord. Not only that but he also gathers 12 stones, one for each tribe of Israel. Then he cuts up the ox and lays it upon the altar. Following that he digs a sizeable trench around the altar. The he commands the people of Israel to pour out four pitchers of water upon the altar. And then to rinse and repeat. And then one more time till everything is totally soaked, and the trench is filled with water.
Finally Elijah prepares to call upon God time and time again. Only one real difference here though. He only needs to call once. Asking God to remember His people, and to help turn their hearts back to Him. And he does so. The fire falls, and it falls in power. The fire consumes, the ox, the soaking wet wood, it devours the wet stones, and not even steam is left where the trench of water was. EVERYTHING WAS CONSUMED.
And so when Israel realized their stupidity, they went back to their God, the almighty God, and worshiped him. And with this, Elijah commanded all the people to gather up all the prophets of Baal, and Elijah slew all the prophets of Baal.

One man, One God, One Faith, One Outcome

The Lesson? God+Faith=Victory

The Capture of the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4-7)
It would be much later on when Israel has established itself as a people looking to God for direction through his priests and prophets that the next triumphant act of God would happen. It will however have been one to show that God has no room for foolish pride and arrogance when it comes to his leaders.
You see God had appointed a judge, Eli, to preside over Israel, and Eli had two songs… Hophni and Phineas. Both of these young men preferred little gods, and did not care to know the lord, but were both priests of him. And when those brothers brought a curse upon themselves, and Eli did not do anything to rebuke them God decided it was time for that lineage to end. And this is how it unfolded.
After a devastating defeat of Israel by the Philistines the elders decided it would be best if the brothers, Hophni and Phineas brought the Ark of the Covenant to the next battle site and proclaim shouts of praise in order to strike fear in the hearts of the Philistines and that God would give victory to Israel, because obviously God would not allow his throne to fall into the hands of the Philistines. However, the Philistines girded themselves and went forth to fight despite their fear of the God (or as they saw it, gods) who struck down Egypt. And… they had a victory… a GREAT victory… they slew 30,000 Israelite foot soldiers, two high priests (Hophni and Phineas), and ultimately in a three-two-one victory captured the ark of the enemies gods. When news was brought to Eli who was sitting on a stool, old and blind, he fell over and his own weight caused him to break his neck.
Now one would assume that God did achieve his goal but at a great cost, His throne was in the hands of the pagan enemies. However, this was to be a multi-faceted lesson that God was teaching. For the Philistines needed to learn that indeed the God of Israel was bigger then their own gods.
The first place the ark of the covenant was brought to was the house of Dagon, a god of the philistines. They placed the ark before the stature of Dagon in his temple that night. The next morning, the priests found the statue laying face down in front of the ark, so they righted it. The next morning the same statue was face down in front of the ark, except, on the altar its head and hands had been cut off so only the torso remained, and the priests knew they were in trouble. This was culminated when God afflicted them with a couple of plagues to remind them of how he regards being treated like a lesser god. The people were afflicted with tumors, and mice were sent to ravage the land. And what did the Philistines do? They send it to a different city of their own… And what happens…? The Rinse and Repeat cycle through another 3 cities until the Philistines finally relent and send the ark back to Israel with a guilt offering.

So with no help by Israel, God demonstrated his power to foreign powers and foreign gods.

The Lesson? God -You = Victory

I hope you readers enjoyed the short series on "Complements and Catalysts." Those were some off the cuff theology, and today I am going to bring you something different, and something also not entirely new. During my senior year at Simpson University I wrote a research paper on "A Theology of Discpline." Unfortunately upon reading through the paper I decided I pitied my professor for having to read such a poorly written paper. However, I do still believe the topic and content were very worthwhile, so I now provide you with the newly revised series on "A Theology of Discipline." This will be broken up into smaller portions, so today will be something of an introduction and overview of what the rest of the series will be covering. Enjoy!


A Theology of Discipline
“Vengeance as reaction to covenant violation is not retribution for retribution’s sake, but is discipline to restoration…” H.G.L. Peels

Introduction
Of the many theologically binding themes to be found in the Old Testament the covenantal relationship between God and Israel as Father and Child stands in firm resolve. As a child grows, the means of disciplining the child evolve. This is no different in the case of God acting as the Father of Israel. Israel’s progression as child maturing begins with their birth as God’s chosen people with Abraham, ending with their return as a prodigal young adult from Babylonian exile. This article seeks to detail out the various forms and degrees of discipline that are evident in the Old Testament following a chronological time line of Israel’s development, the process following that of an infant, a toddler, a youth, a teen, and finally as an adult.

It is necessary at this point in time to first point out that I am not seeking to equate discipline with punishment. These are two similar yet distinctly different actions. The Encarta dictionary definition for punishment is: “a penalty that is imposed on somebody for wrongdoing” whereas a definition of discipline is: “to teach somebody to obey rules or to behave in an ordered or controlled way” This is to say that if one is to see that God punishes Israel it is simply a part of the overall action of discipline. Where in His effort to help them as His children they must first learn to follow their Father’s rules which will lead to a more harmonious living as par his creation intent. In other words, punishment is the action taken while discipline is the foundation of purpose that it is acted out from.

Built atop this is the fact that God is the father and creator of humanity and the specific representative God of Israel whom He loves. It is a great to put in that Claus Westermann speaks to the Hebrew word mhr, which means “mother’s womb” as word that defines in a sense God’s love for Israel in a familiar sort. So as a father His love for his children will cause Him to take rather severe actions in order that His children may learn to grow and become righteous before Him.