Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:6-8

6 Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.

7 And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.

8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.

The previous three verses established the simple facts of what happened at the Red Sea, today’s verses now add vivid imagery and artistry. The enemy wasn’t just drowned in the sea, they were “dashed in pieces,” and “consumed as stubble.” The water didn’t just withdraw to the side and then collapse back into place, it was gathered together by “the blast of the nostrils,” and it “stood upright as an heap,” and finally “congealed in the heart of the sea.”

Reading these parts of the song one has the image of sudden, dramatic destruction. It paints a picture of large movements happening sharply. This was no war of attrition, no gradual wearing down. Pharaoh’s will had been progressively broken by the gradual succession of plagues in Egypt, but the final scene in his story was one of immediate devastation. In a single moment, the charioteers were turned from the assailants to the victims.

And verse 6 makes perfectly clear that the hinge by which this sudden, dramatic turn came was the hand of the Lord. It was “become glorious in power,” not because it had obtained a power that it had lacked previously, but because this was the first time that power and glory was perceived so fully.

The miracles in Egypt had tended to follow a gradual, natural process. The plagues had primarily been ushered in by understandable means, such as slowly being blown in by a wind “from the east.” They were forewarned of and prepared for, and were for the most part situations that people actually already saw in their daily lives, just not to such extreme lengths and not all in the same year. The parting and collapsing of the Red Sea, on the other hand, was something immediate, unannounced, and unlike anything that had been seen before. This was what made it so momentous as to be worthy of a song!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:3-5

3 The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name.

4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.

5 The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.

The next three verses of song are short and to the point. First, we are told “the Lord is a man of war.” Admittedly, this is a role of God that we often forget in today’s sanitized/effeminate Christianity. John Eldredge has written extensively how our culture has lost the truth that our Lord is a warrior. In his book, Wild at Heart, Eldredge says, “Jesus is no ‘capon priest,’ no pale-faced altar boy with his hair parted in the middle, speaking softly, avoiding confrontation….He is the lord of hosts, the captain of angel armies.”

That isn’t to say that the Lord lacks warmth, compassion, and tenderness for His chosen people. He is capable of being both gentle to the innocent and fierce to the guilty. What the Israelites saw on the banks of the Red Sea was that fierceness of God, and they were so in awe of it that they repeated it over and over in their song!

Verses 4 and 5 recount in short manner the way that Pharaoh and his men were “drowned in the Red sea.” The statement “they sank into the bottom as a stone,” sounds to me like a derision. They were heavy, dull, and useless, judged by the water to be unfit of ascension, and so hastily condemned to the depths instead.

These three verses have related the pure and simple facts, with very little embellishment. Now, in the next set of verses, the drama of the situation will be better conveyed with more flowery and expressive statements. This song is laying out the experience in layers: facts first, flair following.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:2

2 The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

The song continues, calling the Lord Israel’s strength, song, and salvation. They proclaim that He will be their God, instead of any strange gods, such as those they must have become acquainted with in Egypt. They will favor Him above all others and be true to Him. As we will see, sometimes they would make good on that promise and sometimes not.

Something else that stands out in their promise is that they would “prepare him an habitation.” Israel had already been commanded to keep “the Lord’s law in the mouth,” and to hold his lessons “upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes.” Paul would also speak of the law being “written in their hearts” in later years. All of this represents giving God a habitation in one’s own person. His home would be in their minds, their hearts, and their deeds.

But, of course, there would also be a literal manifestation of these words, and very soon. Moses and the Israelites are also speaking of the tabernacle that they will build in the wilderness, that the Lord may abide with them as they go along their way. They would literally make God a part of their community, complete with His very own house, an actual neighbor in their city!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 15:1

1 Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

We now return to the account of the Israelites, after they had finally rid themselves of the oppression of Egypt. After the miraculous escape through the Red Sea, it would appear that the Israelites understood that the Egyptian tyranny was permanently behind them, and so they wrote a song to commemorate the occasion.

Of course, the songs in the Old Testament lose much of their artistic merit in translation. They read awkwardly in their English counterpart, devoid of meter and tune. Instead it is the themes and ideas of the song that have been prioritized, and so those are the qualities that I will focus this study on.

This song was clearly meant to be a song of praise, focused on extolling the power and salvation of the Lord in freeing captive Israel. More specifically, it is focused on the event of God overthrowing the Egyptians in the sea. The song summons that particular image in its very first sentence, and will return to it again and again. The song is firmly tied to that event, and seems to have been written while the thrill of it was still fresh in the mind.

And this is the great power that rests in music. The thrill and rapture of an isolated moment can be imprinted into the notes and lyrics, like a mold, and then those emotions can be cast and recast into the hearts of future generations. I believe this was the purpose of this song, to transport all future believers to that singular moment of God’s power made manifest upon the waters of the Red Sea, though we never stood upon the shores ourselves.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Outnumbered Against Evil

We are each of us outnumbered in our own person during our struggles to do what is right. On the one side we have but our conscience, while on the other side we have both our selfishness and our ignorance. We must compete with both our desire to do evil, even when we know it is evil, and our tendency to choose wrong, even when our intentions are pure.

None of us can hope to prevail in this struggle of two-against-one. We may put up a respectable fight, but each of us will be overrun by our baser instincts and shortsighted mistakes sooner or later. If we hope to ever have any chance of success, we have got to get help. We need more than ourselves. We have to stop doing this alone and let God in. Then the scales can finally tip in our favor.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Turn the Other Cheek

I spoke yesterday about two sides to God’s Justice, one that condemns the wicked and one that exalts the pure in heart. One of the scriptures I quoted was Jesus teaching his followers to “turn the other cheek.” I wanted to explore that sentiment even more, but my comments were becoming large enough that I decided pulled them out into this separate post. To help us get into it, let’s pull up the relevant verses:

Matthew 5:39-40:

39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

Imagine if Christ has said “whosoever shall smite thee on they right cheek, do not strike him back,” or if he had said, “if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, just let him have it.” If those were the things that he had said, then this would already be advocating for an unexpected, unnatural behavior, one that is much more mild than we are accustomed to. What Christ would be asking of us in this case would be a sort of passive pacifism, a call to inaction.

But those are not the things that Christ actually said. He took it a step further and said “turn to him the other [cheek] also” and “let him have they cloak also.” This is not passive inaction at all, but active action. We are actually being told to do something. Specifically, something that deliberately causes greater harm to our own self!

I don’t think it wise to assume that Jesus was just exaggerating when he said these things, to suppose that he just really wanted to hammer home the point of non-retaliation. The more I’ve thought about, the more I think he really meant that when someone does you harm you, should actively double up on it!

Christ is not calling for non-retaliation, but rather a sort of reflected retaliation. When one cheek is struck, justice requires that another cheek be struck in return. Christ’s advice does not dissolve that justice, but rather states that we should have that recompense be met upon our own person. He is calling us to take the retribution of justice and absorb within our self! We are taking the punishment for their own crimes, and that terminates the cycle of harm right there.

And this, of course, is the very thing that Christ did for all the world. In his atonement he was unjustly condemned, which to be balanced out would require his persecutors to be justly condemned by God. But Christ accounted for both the initial offense and the recompense in his sacrifice. In submitting himself to his condemnation, Christ took not only the direct pain of what they were doing to him in the moment, but also the pain of what the Father would do to them in return, paying the price for their sins that they might go free. They were both condemned and redeemed in the single act of Jesus’s death.

Christ is the end of the back-and-forth nature of justice. He takes the never-ending cycle of harm and self-closes the loop in his own person. And in his injunction to “turn the other cheek,” he is asking to us to do the same thing in our own small way. We can be the cul-de-sac where the road of affliction turns back on itself and dissolves.

Of course, as with Christ’s atonement, it is still up to the offender to accept the grace that is offered. You have done your part to preserve peace in the world, but the world still has the choice whether to take that peace or not. And if the world rejects that opportunity, then it is doubly condemned for having struck the innocent twice!

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Two Halves of Justice

Some time ago I did a study on the qualities of Justice and Mercy. One key takeaway was how justice is both a law for punishment and reward. If we harm another who doesn’t deserve it, justice demands that now we be harmed. Conversely, if we do good to another who doesn’t deserve it, justice demands that now we receive good, too. Justice can be either the vehicle for our damnation or our ascension, depending on which way we choose to engage with it.

Recently, I thought some more about this dual nature of justice, and I wanted to point out two more observations that I had.

Two Teachings of Justice)

I’ve realized that the complete picture of justice is only seen by combining two Biblical laws that were given by two different men at two very different times. The first treatise on justice comes from Moses, when he famously pronounced “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” This mandate was given while describing the rules for punishment that would befall those who broke Hebrew law and wronged their neighbor. It was, therefore, a representation of only the negative half of justice. To this day, no one uses the term “an eye for an eye” to mean paying a good deed forward, only for retaliation against the wrong that has been done by another.

The second treatise on justice was given over multiple discourses by Christ. His famous injunction to “do unto others what you would have them do to you” is, at its core, a call for justice. “Doing unto others” is giving the just reaction to a yet unreceived action.

Jesus also invoked the image of justice when he stated, “with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.” That is you being recompensed equally for how you treat another, which is another way of saying ‘justice.’ Undeserved kindness that you show to others must be returned by undeserved kindness from God because the scales of justice require it.

Moses gave the half of justice that condemned the guilty, but Christ gave the half that exonerated the innocent. Christ did not contradict the law of justice given by Moses, he completed it, and both halves have been in full force forever after.

Judicial Justice and Personal Justice)

It also stood out to me that Moses’s half of justice, that of punishment and redress, is the correct form of justice for a people. The chief purpose of a judicial system is to provide protection for the innocent, and to right those that have been wronged. In the western world our sense of national justice still mirrors that of Moses’s. Our court systems are in essence an eye-for-an-eye, intended to allow the victim to be restored to whole by taking from the perpetrator.

Meanwhile, Christ’s half of justice, that of forgiveness and reward, is the correct form of justice for the individual. We do not compel a person in our laws to forgive another who has wronged them, or to turn the other cheek, but we do applaud them when they choose for themselves to take that higher road.

And this is how it should be. There should be a default protection for the weak and innocent, and there should also be an option for the individual to waive the offense if they so choose. We are properly incensed at a judge who decides to withhold justice, while we are properly in awe of those who, without compulsion, show their offender mercy.

One law, two halves, each aligned with the righteous and blessed order of God.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Creating Our Own Monsters

People play a dangerous game when they insist on casting entire demographics as villains. I have seen several examples in society of everyday people that wish to “just get along” being accused of actually being the enemy. Ironically, those that take the route of disingenuous accusation tend to summon the very evil that they fabricated. They are crushed by their own myth.

Different cultures will call certain races inherently evil. Sexes are encouraged to see their interaction as inherently adversarial. Members of a caste are despised simply for being of that caste. In all of these examples, the accused are told that their lack of personal transgression does not absolve them, they are covered in sin or blood no matter what they do, fundamentally evil since the day they were born. We are told that some groups are just against other groups, always have been and always will be, and that’s all there is to it.

Division in the West is growing rapidly, and we are becoming a more race- and gender- and class-obsessed people. In earlier times we were been more willing to look past what another person is to see who another person is. I’ve recognized in myself how when speaking with others I tend to wonder what they are wondering about me, whereas before I would just speak as though we were one and the same.

Ideally we would be able to reject the false accusations out of hand. We would refuse to adopt propositions about ourselves or others that we do not believe in. We would continue to live good and wholesome lives, treating all as equals, letting the inaccurate labels just slide off our backs. But the more society pushes certain demographics to hate other demographics, the more the hated are going to accept that the haters are their true enemy. And when enough people accept these opposing side, horrible things will follow.

We may have to grapple with terrible monsters then, but it will be monsters entirely of our own devising.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Loving Your Enemy vs Renouncing Evil- Summary

I’ve tried to focus this study on the words and example of Christ, using his behavior and attitudes as the model for his followers to emulate. By studying his example directly I have found two main takeaways. Let’s review each.

Steered Rightly)

The first lesson that I learned was that the correct action for a disciple to take in response to evil is more nuanced and case-specific than I had expected. I learned that we cannot just apply a static rule to predetermine each behavior for all time, but rather that we must have a living connection with God to steer us rightly in each and every situation.

In every great war there are times of attack, times of defense, and even times of strategic sacrifice. God is actively waging war with evil, across a front that is constantly shifting and moving. We are but foot-soldiers, with only a narrow view of the field. If we find ourselves waiting for orders we must conduct ourselves according to what seems best from our perspective, but when the higher command is given, it trumps anything that we thought up to that point. Only the General has the perspective over the whole, and knows the greater movements that are at play.

Perhaps we do not feel it in our nature to go on the offensive, publicly declaring truth and renouncing sin, but if the General needs a victory in this sector it is our duty to give it to Him. Perhaps it feels wrong to us to silently suffer oppression and derision, but if the General is allowing the enemy to make camp in our valley, we must be willing to pull back, remembering that this is but one step in His long and intricate dance.

In short, it is up to God when we are to be bold and when we are to be meek. There are examples when Christ was fierce, and examples when he was mild, all according to the larger, broader plan. So, too, it must be for us.

Our Limitations)

Something else that I learned from my study is that there are limitations on the acts permitted for Christ’s disciples to take. We are at times called to act in many different ways, but that doesn’t mean we are going to be called to act in every way. Some tactics are outside of our Master’s strategy guide, and we cannot employ them as His servants.

Most particularly, it is not for man to condemn another. The Lord taught, “of you it is required to forgive all men,” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:10).” In none of the examples that I studied was there any reason to assume that we are ever called to permanently dye another’s soul black and call them a lost cause.

Firstly, we must not do that because we never know the full picture. Secondly, even if we did have the full picture of another person, their beginning and their ending, their inner thoughts and motivations, the state of their very heart, it would still not be right for us to pronounce final judgment upon them because it simply isn’t our place to do so. Even if we could judge them rightly, it just isn’t our job to do it. “The keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there,” (2 Nephi 9:41).

But that isn’t to say that the worldly cry of “don’t judge me!” is in harmony with Christ’s examples either. There are two salient points that need to be understood in combination with the fact that we have no right to condemn one another.

  1. Judging sin and calling it wrong is approved by the words and example of Christ. As already established, we are not to condemn a fellow-child of God, but absolutely we are called to condemn the wicked acts that they do. We condemn the wicked acts that we, ourselves, do also! In all cases, we can, and should, point out when behaviors are of a devilish spirit, and renounce them most emphatically.
  2. While we do not condemn others, God does, and sometimes He calls on us to bear the message of that condemnation, or to carry out His sentence. The Israelites had no right in-and-of-themselves to choose life or death for the pagan kingdoms that occupied Canaan, but God did, and He ordered their destruction by the hand of His people. Similarly, informing others of the judgments that God has already made is not the same as casting our own judgment upon them. The scriptures clearly spell out certain behaviors that God has called sinful, and they also clearly proclaim that all sinners are worthy of damnation. To proselytize that message, along with the Good News of salvation through Christ, is entirely justifiable, so long as we do not mix in our own personal condemnation while conveying God’s.

***

It is a careful balance we are called to walk as disciples of Christ. How wisely he said that we were to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves,” (Matthew 10:16). We do not condemn our brothers, but we do condemn sin. We do not stand in final judgment, but we do forewarn what God has revealed for when that judgment comes. We are ready to fight and ready to endure, to reproach and to hold our peace, all at the direction of our Heavenly General. We are adaptable to the situation and the command, but consistent in God’s spirit through it all. He is our one constant in this intricate, dangerous dance.