Faith Rest for the Crisis.
johndbrey@gmail.com
Copyright 2018, John D. Brey.
5. Trust not thy friends and kinsfolk, nor put off the work of thy salvation to the future, for men will forget thee sooner than thou thinkest. . . 6. Oh, dearly beloved, from what danger thou mightiest free thyself, from what fear, if only thou wouldst always live in fear, and in expectation of death! Strive now to live in such wise that in the hour of death thou mayest rather rejoice than fear. Learn now to die to the world, so shalt thou begin to live with Christ. Learn now to contemn all earthly things, and then mayest thou freely go to Christ. Keep under thy body by penitence, and then shalt thou be able to have a sure confidence. 7. Ah, foolish one! Why thinkest thou that thou shalt live long, when thou art not sure of a single day? How many have been deceived, and suddenly have been snatched away from the body! How many times has thou heard how one was slain by the sword, another was drowned, another falling from on high broke his neck, another died at the table, another whilst at play! One died by fire, another by the sword, another by the pestilence, another by the robber. Thus cometh death to all, and the life of men swiftly passeth away alike a shadow. . . 9. Keep thyself as a stranger and a pilgrim upon the earth, to whom the things of the world appertain not.
Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, P. 22-23.
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.
. . . By saying for Zion’s sake, the prophet seems to refer to his own vexation, that he was ridiculed by the ungodly, who jutted out their moths and derided him with their tongues, as described above in chapter 30 (30:9 ff.) So that he might have said, “I was not a bit interested in them, I am not going to preach anymore.” So Jeremiah said (Jer. 20:8), “The Word of the Lord has become for me a reproach.” So Jeremiah complains, since these many reproaches offend us. So it was with me, Martin Luther, that I would often determine not to preach anymore. Every magistrate and every nobleman does nothing; in fact, they despise the words. No village can support one minister, or pastor. No school can support one co-worker, so that ministers of the church die of starvation, while at the same time the people with extreme greed amass everything for themselves. This excessive contempt for the Gospel and this blasphemy among the people causes our preachers to become altogether weary. So the prophet was mocked by excessive contempt and derision and felt like saying, “I would just as soon keep silent altogether and let them sweat it out themselves. Yet it is not for their sakes that I have assumed this office. There are others who will receive my words, and for their sakes I will preach.” Meanwhile our people cry, “I have enough to eat and drink, I do not need a pastor. Faith, Faith! He who does not have food and clothing is sinning against himself.” Thus all the rulers are caught up in extreme inactivity. I will see to it that these ungodly people come under the papacy. In short, because of the ungodly I would keep silent, just as our people care nothing if no word would be preached. Yet among them there are certain remnants, and for their sakes, for those good people, I will speak, even though a number of reasons should dictate silence.
Luther, Isaiah 63:1.
“False is the tale” that when a lover is at hand favor ought rather to be accorded to one who does not love, on the ground that the former is mad, and the latter of sound mind. That would be right if it were an invariable truth that madness is an evil, but in reality, the greatest blessings come by way of madness, indeed of madness that is heaven-sent. It was when they were mad that the prophetess at Delphi and the priestesses at Dodona achieved so much for which both states and individuals in Greece are thankful; when sane they did little or nothing. As for Sibyl; and others who by the power of inspired prophecy have so often foretold the future to so many, and guided them aright, I need not dwell on what is obvious to everyone. Yet it is in place to appeal to the fact that madness was accounted no shame nor disgrace by the men of old who gave thigs their names; otherwise they would not have connected that greatest of arts, whereby the future is discerned, with this very word “madness,” and named it accordingly. No, it was because they held madness to be a valuable gift, when due to divine dispensation, that they named that art as they did, though the men of today, having no sense of values, have put in an extra letter, making it not manic, but mantic. That is borne out by the name they gave to the art of those sane prophets who in quire into the future by means of birds and other signs; the name was “oionoistic,” which by its components indicated that the prophets attained understanding and information by a purely human activity of thought belonging to his own intelligence, though a younger generation has come to call it “oionistic,” lengthening the quantity of the o to make it sound impressive. You see then what this ancient evidence attests. Corresponding to the superior perfection and value of the prophecy of inspiration over that of omen reading, both in name and in fact, is the superiority of heaven-sent madness over man-made sanity. . . But if any man come to the gates of poetry without the madness of the Muses, persuaded that skill alone will make him a good poet, then shall he and his works of sanity with him be brought to nought by the poetry of madness, and behold, their place is nowhere to be found. . . So let us have no fears simply on that score; let us not be disturbed by an argument that seeks to scare us into preferring the friendship of the sane to that of the passionate.
Plato, Phaedrus, 243-245.
Because a man is in this kind of despair, he can very well live on in temporality, indeed, actually all the better, can appear to be a man, be publicly acclaimed, honored, and esteemed, to be absorbed in all the temporal goals. In fact, what is called the secular mentality consists simply of such men who, so to speak, mortgage themselves to the world. They use their capacities, amass money, carry on secular enterprises, calculate shrewdly, etc., perhaps make a name in history, but themselves they are not; spiritually speaking, they have no self, no self for whose sake they could venture everything, no self before God -- however self-seeking they are otherwise.
Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death.
. . . a person . . . [can] go on living fairly well, seem to be a man, be occupied with temporal matters, marry, have children, be honored and esteemed --- and it may not be detected that in a deeper sense he lacks a self. Such things do not create much of a stir in the world, for a self is the last thing the world cares about and the most dangerous thing of all for a person to show signs of having. The greatest hazard of all, the losing the self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss -- an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. -- is sure to be noticed.
Ibid., p.32, 33.
When I see someone who declares he has completely understood how Christ went around in the form of a lowly servant, poor, despised, mocked, and, as the Scripture tells us, spat upon -- when I see the same person . . .avoiding every gust of unfavorable wind from the right or the left, see him so blissful, so extremely blissful, so slap-happy, yes, to make it complete, so slap-happy that he even thanks God for -- for being wholeheartedly honored and esteemed by all, by everyone -- then I have often said privately to myself: "Socrates, Socrates, Socrates, can it be possible that this man has understood what he says he has understood.”
Ibid., p. 91,92.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
And look upon the earth beneath:
For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke,
And the earth shall wax old like a garment,
And they that dwell therein shall die in like manner:
But my salvation shall be for ever,
And my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness,
The people in whose heart is my law;
Fear ye not the reproach of men,
Neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment,
And the worm shall eat them like wool:
But my righteousness shall be for ever,
And my salvation from generation to generation.
Isaiah 51:6-8.
For one who has completely realized the sacrificial implications of every action, one who is leading not a life of his own in this world but a transubstantiated life . . . acts of all kinds are reduced to their paradigms and archetypes, and so referred to Him from whom all action stems . . . our very breathing in and out . . . `are two endless ambrosial oblations that whether waking or sleeping one offers up continuously and without a break . . ..’
Ananda Coomaraswamy, The Door in the Sky, p. 98, 99,
A Christian is masculine, although he may seem feminine and like a little boy. Christians are manlike, that is, courageous and strong, fit for ruling. This is invisible, but according to appearance the Christian seems like a boy and an infant. Yet in invisible things and in faith he is manlike.
Luther, Isaiah 66:7.
Rejoice with Jerusalem. Here he explains himself. He is speaking to those who mourn. Rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her. Therefore the church presents nothing but a sad and barren face. Meanwhile the ungodly go their way rejoicing, while the godly are near despair in their affliction. Yet they must not despair, since they know that their Gospel is not tied to certain persons and cities. “No, the Gospel does not depend on Wittenberg or another city, because I too, I, I am the husband who is still living. I am still here and want to beget children. You will see me begetting the church, although God seems to be sterile and forsaken, since He scarcely converts the remnant of the people. But He will have a very large number of children in all nations.” Rejoice with her in joy. All the godly desire peace, faith, love, and the removal of the wicked and the sects. But suffering and cross remain. They must be there too. For cross and suffering will lead us to greater rejoicing and more births than in a time of prosperity. All of us want to rejoice rather than mourn. Who can do it? As for you, leave it up to God, your Bridegroom and Husband, how you will have children.
Luther, Isaiah 66:10.
The Gemara relates: Like this incident, when Rabbi Akiva was walking along the road and came to a certain city, he inquired about lodging and they did not give him any. He said: Everything that God does, He does for the best. He went and slept in a field, and he had with him a rooster, a donkey and a candle. A gust of wind came and extinguished the candle; a cat came and ate the rooster; and a lion came and ate the donkey. He said: Everything that God does, He does for the best. That night, an army came and took the city into captivity. It turned out that Rabbi Akiva alone, who was not in the city and had no lit candle, noisy rooster or donkey to give away his location, was saved. He said to them: Didn’t I tell you? Everything that God does, he ultimately does for the best.
Berachot 60b.
There are more things … likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
Seneca.
Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a person’s own mind, than on the externals in the world.
George Washington — Letter to mother Mary Ball Washington, Feb. 15, 1787.
And that’s what Solomon comes to see in 3:10: “God has made everything beautiful in its/his time.” But what time is that exactly? When will we come to see the beauty of all things? In a nutshell, on the day of the resurrection. The resurrection is the time when all of life will make sense, and all of life will not make sense until that day. We’ll no doubt enjoy glimpses of God’s big picture over the course of our lives, in mini-resurrections and foreshadows of that great Day. When Joseph was pulled out of the pit in the desert, he understood some of God’s purposes. When he was pulled out of the dungeon in Egypt, he understood more of God’s purposes. And when his bones were finally carried out of Egypt, millions of Jacob’s descendants saw what God had done in and through Joseph’s life and times ----the time when Joseph had been born (as his father’s favorite) and the time when he'd been reckoned as dead, the time when he sought to carve out a future for himself in Egypt and the time when it looked like he’d lost it, the time when he and his father had wept and the times they’d embraced.
The same was true of Jesus’ life. The resurrection was the time when Jesus’ life finally started to make sense to his disciples: the time when his words were fulfilled and his silence before Pilate made complete sense, the time when he was no longer dismissed as the one who should have redeemed Israel but the One who would redeem Israel (Luke 24). And the same will be true in our case. The resurrection will be the day when our lives finally make sense ----when each body is assigned its own particular glory (1 Cor. 15), when we see why we’ve been made to go through all our trials in life, when our tears are wiped away, our sorrows are turned to joy, our tribulations are recompensed a thousand times over, and God makes all things beautiful in his good time.
In the absence of the resurrection, we’ve believed in vain and we’ll live in vain (1 Cor. 15:2, 14), which is the very vanity described in Ecclesiastes 1. And yet by God’s grace we’ve not believed in vain. “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abundant in the work of the Lord, conscious that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).
James Bejon, He Makes All Things Beautiful (Academia.edu).
55. . . . Now, the main thing we were made for is to work with others. Secondly, to resist our body’s urges. Because things driven by logos ----by thought ---have the capacity for detachment ---to resist impulses and sensations, both of which are merely corporeal. Thought seeks to be their master, not their subject. And so it should: they were created for its use. And the third thing is to avoid rashness and credulity. The mind that grasps this and steers straight ahead should be able to hold its own.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Seven, 55.
56. Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.
Ibid.
47. To watch the courses of stars as if you revolved with them. To keep constantly in mind how the elements alter into one another. Thoughts like this wash off the mud of life below.
Ibid.
36. Kingship: to earn a bad reputation by good deeds.
Ibid.
33. Unendurable pain brings its own end with it. Chronic pain is always endurable: the intelligence maintains serenity by cutting itself off from the body, the mind remains undiminished. And the parts that pain affects ---let them speak for themselves, if they can.
Ibid.
1. Very quickly will there be an end of thee here; take heed therefore how it will be with thee in another world. To-day man is, and to-morrow he will be seen no more. And being removed out of sight, quickly also he is out of mind. O the dullness and hardness of man’s heart, which thinketh only of the present, and looketh not forward to the future. Thou oughtest in every deed and thought so to order thyself, as if thou wert to die this day.
Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, p. 21.
2. There are many foolish and unstable men who say, “See what a prosperous life that man hath, how rich and how great he is, how powerful, how exalted.” But lift up thine eyes to the good things of heaven, and thou shalt see that all these worldly things are nothing, they are utterly uncertain, yea, they are wearisome, because they are never possessed without care and fear. The happiness of man lieth not in the abundance of temporal things but a moderate portion sufficeth him. Our life upon the earth is verily wretchedness. The more a man desireth to be spiritual, the more bitter doth the present life become to him; because he the better understandeth and seeth the side effects of human corruption. For to eat, to drink, to watch, to sleep, to rest, to labour, and to be subject to the other necessities of nature, is truly a great wretchedness and affliction to a devout man who would feign be released and free from all sin.
Ibid. p. 20.
5. Then shall it be seen that he was the wise man in this world who learned to be a fool and despised for Christ. Then shall all tribulation patiently born delight us, while the mouth of the ungodly shall be stopped. Then shall every godly man rejoice, and every profane man shall mourn. Then the afflicted flesh shall rejoice more than if it had been always nourished in delights. Then the humble garment shall put on beauty, and the precious robe shall hide itself as vile. Then the little poor cottage shall be more commended than the gilded palace. Then enduring patience shall have more might than all the power of the world. Then simple obedience shall be more highly exalted than all worldly wisdom.
Ibid, p. 24.
5. Christ, also, when He was in the world, was despised and rejected of men, and in His greatest necessity was left by His acquaintance and friends to bear these reproaches. Christ was willing to suffer and be despised, and darest thou complain of any? Christ had adversaries and gainsayers, and dost though wish to have all men thy friends and benefactors? Whence shall thy patience attain her crown if no adversity befall thee? If thou are unwilling to suffer any adversity, how shalt thou be the friend of Christ? Sustain thyself with Christ and for Christ if thou wilt reign with Christ.
Ibid. p. 30.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matthew 6:19-21.
But all these things are, as I have said before, the inventions of men whose intellects are obscured, and who are slaves to opinions utterly under the influence of the outward senses, whose judgment is continually corrupted by those who are brought before its tribunal, and as such is unstable. But they ought, if they had really been at all anxious for the truth, not to show themselves, in respect of their minds, inferior to those who have been diseased in their bodies; for such invalids, out of their desire for good health, commit themselves to physicians. But these other men hesitate to get rid of that disease of the soul, ignorance, by becoming the associates of wise men; from whom they might not only learn to escape ignorance, but they might also acquire that peculiar possession of man, namely, knowledge.
And since, as that sweetest of all writers, Plato, says, envy is removed far from the divine company, but wisdom, that most divine and communicative of all things, never closes its school, but is continually open to receive all who thirst for salutary doctrines, to whom she pours forth the inexhaustible stream of unalloyed instruction and wisdom, and persuades them to yield to the intoxication of the soberest of all drunkenness. And her disciples, like persons who have been initiated into the sacred and holy mysteries, when they are at last entirely filled with the knowledge proffered to them, reproach themselves bitterly for their previous neglect, as not having taken proper care of their time, but having lived a life which was hardly deserving to be called life, in which they have been utterly destitute of wisdom. . ..
“God is my ruler, and no mortal man.”
For, in real truth, that man alone is free who has God for his leader; indeed, in my opinion, that man is even the ruler of all others, and has all affairs of the earth committed to him, being, as it were, the viceroy of a great king, the mortal lieutenant of an immortal sovereign. However, this assertion of the actual authority of the wise man may be postponed to a more suitable opportunity.
We must at present examine minutely the question of his perfect freedom. If now any one advancing deeply into the matter should choose to investigate it closely, he will see clearly that there is no one thing so nearly related to another as independence of action. On which account there are a great many things which stand in the way of the liberty of a wicked man; covetousness of money, the desire of glory, the love of pleasure, and so on. But the virtuous man has absolutely no obstacle at all since he rises up against, and resists, and overthrows, and tramples on love, and fear, and cowardice, and pain, and all things of that kind, as if they were rivals defeated by him in the public games. For he has learnt to disregard all the commands which those most unlawful masters of the soul seek to impose upon him, out of his admiration and desire for freedom, of which independence and spontaneousness of action are the most especial and inalienable inheritance, and by some person the poet is praise who composed this iambic---
“No man’s a slave who does not fear to die,”
As having had an accurate idea of the consequences of such courage; for he conceived that nothing is so calculated to enslave the mind as a fear of death, arising from an excessive desire of living.
But we must considerer that not only is the man who feels no anxiety to avoid death incapable of being made a slave, but the same privilege belongs to those who are indifferent to poverty, and want of reputation, and pain, and all those other things which the generality of men look upon as evils, being themselves but evil judges of things, since they pronounce a man a slave from a computation of what things he has need of, look at the duties which he is compelled to perform, when they ought to look rather at his free and indomitable disposition; for the man who out of a lowly and slavish spirit submits himself to lowly and slavish actions in spite of his deliberate judgement, is really and truly a slave; but he who adapts his circumstance and actions to the present occasion, and who voluntarily and in an enduring spirit bears up against the events of fortune not looking at anything of human affairs as extraordinary, but having by diligent consideration fully assured himself that all divine things are honored by eternal order and happiness; and that all mortal things are tossed about in an everlasting storm and fluctuation of affairs so as to be subject to the greatest variety of changes and vicissitudes, and who, from those considerations, bears all that can befall him with noble courage, is at once both a philosopher and a free man. On which account he will neither obey every one who imposes a command upon him, not even if he threatens him with insults, and tortures, and even still more formidable evils; but he will bear a gallant spirit, and will cry out in reply to such menaces---
“Yes, burn and scorch my flesh, and glut your hate. Drinking my life-warm blood; for heaven’s stars shall quit their place, and darken ‘neath the earth, and earth rise up and take the place of heaven, before you wring from me a word of flattery.”
. . . What shall we say then? Shall we not look upon a wise man as more difficult to enslave than a lion, when he in his freedom and invincible soul has much more courage than any creature can have which consists of a body which is by nature a slave, however great his strength may be by which he resists his masters.
Philo, Every Good Man is Free.
As long as we think that our self-preservation depends solely on ourselves, on our own intellectual and physical power to struggle for the means of our existence and to wrest them from nature and from society (which is equally engaged in the struggle for existence); as long as we fail to understand that the task of self-preservation is itself a Torah duty; as long as we seek to accomplish this task solely by our own clever manipulations, and not through the fulfillment of our duties ---then the task of self-preservation and the task of fulfilling our duties will seem to us as two separate spheres. Swiftly and easily we shall be lured into thinking that the care of wife and children, family and community ---which is justified in itself ----overrides the fulfillment of duty, because bringing home the bread to wife and children will be our overriding concern.
God, however, wished to create a people that has one concern only; fulfillment of duty. He therefore led Israel into the wilderness, so that through a national experience of forty years they would be cured forever of obsessive concern with the struggle for existence. “Remember the entire path along which God, your God, has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to have you live in want, to test you, so that you many know what is in your heart, whether you will keep His commandments or not” (Devarim 8:2). This is the test that the Jew must meet: Even if he is impoverished and lacking everything, deprived of all the help that nature and society can provide, and even if he finds himself with his wife and children in a desolate wilderness, he must never despair. In a howling wilderness he should trust in God and live only for the sake of fulfilling his duty. This is the test of Jewish faithfulness to duty, and that is the prerequisite for the Jewish mission. “He had you live in want; He let you go hungry, and then He fed you with the manna which you did not know and your fathers did not know, in order to teach you that not on bread alone can man live; rather, man can live on anything that comes from the mouth of God. Your garment did not become worn with age upon you, neither did your foot swell these forty years (Ibid. 8:3-4).
Thus, the purpose of our experience in the wilderness was to free us from overrating our own power, so that we not come to idolize human ingenuity, which brings forth bread from the earth. The message to be conveyed by the סוכה to us and to future generations is the story of a wilderness filled with God’s providence, a wilderness made habitable by God’s loving care. The lesson is that a person can be happy, living even in the shelter of the wilderness.
The Hirsch Chumash, Vayikra, p. 848.
I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and a shield: The Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
Psalms 84:10-12.
Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father? But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Matthew 10:29-31.
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
2 Corinthians 4:8-12.
14 [Deliver my soul] From the men who are Your tools, O God; from the men of transitory import whose portion is in this life, and whose stomachs You fill with that which is hidden with You---let them have children in plenty and let them leave their abundance to their offspring. 15 As for me, I shall behold Your countenance in thoughts of the right, and when one day I awaken, I shall be satisfied with Your formation [or appearance].
The Hirsch Tehillim, 17:14-15 [See Rabbi Hirsch’s excellent commentary on these verses]:
ממתים וגו׳ . מתים is a degrading epithet for a human being. It denotes people of only passing importance . . .ידך, “who are your hand,” i.e.,. who are Your tools. . . At any rate, חלד means “the world of transitory things.” . . The wicked men of which verse 14 speaks are people who spring up from the world of transitory things and who are rooted in quicksand. . . All their portion is in this life.
11 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever,
And their dwelling places to all generations;
They call their lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not:
He is like the beasts that perish.
13 This their way is their folly:
Yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave;
Death shall feed on them;
And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;
And their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave:
For he shall receive me. Selah.
16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich,
When the glory of his house is increased;
17 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away:
His glory shall not descend after him.
18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul:
And men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.
19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
They shall never see light.
20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth not,
Is like the beasts that perish.
Psalms 49.
Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also: The body they may kill: God's truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever.
Martin Luther.
32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: 33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36 And others had trial of cruel mocking’s and scourging’s, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
12 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Hebrews 11:32-12:3.
In these words the Apostle sets forth a most apt antithesis (in four ways): first, he who is justified by faith has peace with God, but tribulation in the world, because his life is spiritual. Secondly, the unrighteous have peace with the world, but anguish and tribulation with God, because their life is carnal. Thirdly, as God the Holy Spirit is eternal, so also the peace of the righteous and the tribulation of the unrighteous will be everlasting. Lastly, as flesh is temporal, so also the tribulation of the righteous and the peace of the unrighteous will be temporary.
Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans, p. 89.
Patient continuance is altogether necessary that no work can be good in which the patient continuance is lacking. The world is so utterly perverse and Satan is so heinously wicked that he cannot allow any good work to be done, but he must persecute it. However, in this very way God, in His wonderful wisdom, proves what work is good and pleasing to him. Here the rule holds: As long as we do good and for our good do not encounter contradiction, hatred, and all manner of disagreeable and disadvantageous things, so we must fear that our good work as yet is not pleasing to God; for just so long it is not yet done with patient continuance. But when our good work is followed by persecution, let us rejoice and firmly believe that it is pleasing to God; indeed, then let us be assured that it comes from God, for whatever is of God is bound to be crucified by the world. As long as it does not bring the cross, that is as long as it does not bring shame and contempt as we patiently continue in it, it cannot be esteemed as a divine work since even the Son of God was not free from it ---(suffering for the sake of the good He did) --- but left us an example in this. He Himself tells us in Matthew 5:10,12: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. . . .Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven.”
Luther, Commentary on Romans, p.55 (emphasis mine).
This psalm expresses the most intimate relationship of the individual man with God and gives us a strikingly clear insight into David’s soul. “God is my shepherd, therefore I suffer no want. I do not miss what I do not have. I do not feel its lack, since it is God, my shepherd, Who has seen fit to withhold it from me. He shows me His love by denying me that which I desire but which, were I to have it, would cause me harm.”
Hirsch Tehillim, Psalms 23.
But if the enemies are to be placed, it follows that they have not yet been placed as footstools, but rather are in control, and not a footstool [yet], but have been tyrants in the kingdom that belongs to Christ or to the spirit. So then, the fact that Christ sits at the right hand of God, what does it mean but that He first stood at His left hand [hung in his lifted hand], that He first was a Servant, and therefore now is a King, that He first suffered, and therefore is now glorified, that He was first judged, and therefore is now the Judge, that He first stood, walked, and lay down, and therefore He now sits? You, too, must act this way: First be humbled so that you may be exalted; stand, go, and lie down in a twofold way. In the first place, that you acknowledge that you are lying down and are dead and humiliated by the devil. Second, that you also humiliate yourself with punishments and remorse, or that you bear them for others, as did the Lord.
Luther, Psalms, 110:1.
The vast saga of biological evolution on Earth is one tiny chapter in an ageless tale of the struggle of the creative force of life against the disintegrative acid of entropy, of emergent order against encroaching chaos, and ultimately of the heroic power of mind against the brute intransigence of lifeless matter.
Through the quality and character of our contributions to the progress of life in this epic struggle, we shape not only our own lives and those of our immediate progeny but the lives and minds of every generation of living creatures down to the end of time. We thereby help to shape the ultimate fate of the cosmos itself. . . The notion that every creature, great and small, plays some indefinable role in an awesome process by which life gains hegemony over inanimate nature implies that every living thing is linked with every other bit of living matter in a joint endeavor ---- a kind of cosmic “Mission Impossible” --- of vast scope and indefinable duration.
We shoulder on together---bacteria, people, extraterrestrials (if they exist), and hyper-intelligent computers ---pressing forward, against all odds and the implacable foe that is entropy, toward a distant future we can only faintly imagine. But it is together---in a spirit of cooperation tempered by conflict---that we journey hopefully toward our distant destination.
If, like Sisyphus, we are occasionally pained by the weight of the stone we are pushing uphill and if our task strikes us, at least sporadically, as futile and absurd, we can at least take comfort in the astonishing fact that every creature that ever lived and ever will live shares our existential plight.
James N. Gardner, Biocosm, p. 213, and 217.
If we put this whole progression in terms of our discussion of the possibilities of heroism, it goes like this: Man breaks through the bounds of merely cultural heroism; he destroys the character lie that had him perform as a hero in the everyday social scheme of things; and by doing so he opens himself up to infinity, to the possibility of cosmic heroism, to the very service of God. His life thereby acquires ultimate value in place of merely social and cultural, historical value. He links his secret inner self, his authentic talent, his deepest feelings of uniqueness, his inner yearning for absolute significance, to the very ground of creation. Out of the ruins of the broken cultural self there remains the mystery of the private, invisible, inner self which yearned for ultimate significance, for cosmic heroism. This invisible mystery at the heart of every creature now attains cosmic significance by affirming its connection with the invisible mystery at the heart of creation. This is the meaning of faith. At the same time it is the meaning of the merger of psychology and religion in Kierkegaard’s thought. The truly open person, the one who has shed his character armor, the vital lie of his cultural conditioning, is beyond the help of any mere “science,” of any merely social standard of health. He is absolutely alone and trembling on the brink of oblivion----which is at the same time the brink of infinity. To give him the new support that he needs, the “courage to renounce dread without any dread . . . only faith is capable of,” says Kierkegaard. Not that this is an easy out for man, or a cure-all for the human condition----Kierkegaard is never facile. He gives a strikingly beautiful idea:
. . . not that [faith] annihilates dread, but remaining ever young, it is continually developing itself out of the death throes of dread.
Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death, p. 91.
He never dies whose heart is alive with love:/ Our persistence is recorded in the register of the Cosmos.
Hafex, Collected Lyrics 34.
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Romans 8:18-25.
It is the mature believer who knows what he is doing and where he is going in life. Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the exclusive means of maintaining sanity in an insane world! Doctrine can not only change the life of the believer, but it can alter the course of history, and reverse the tide of carnality, apostasy, reversionism, and evil. Yet only when a maximum number of believers are faithfully taking in doctrine are national reversionism and the impact of evil diverted.
R.B. Thieme, Jr. Reversionism, p. 133.
A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing:
Our helper He, amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to cause us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth is his name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,—
We tremble not at him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! His doom is sure,—
One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers—
No thanks to them—abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also:
The body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still,
His kingdom is for ever.
Martin Luther.
Seek not greatness for yourself. Covet not honor. Your study should lead to practice. Crave not the [luxurious] table of kings, for your table [of learning] is greater than their table [of food], and your crown is greater than their crown. And faithful is your Employer to pay you the recompense for your work.
Avot 6.4.
Rabbah, reading the verse “Black as a raven,” took it to refer to one who for the sake of words of Torah is willing to have his face made as black [by deprivation] as a raven. Rava said: The verse refers to one who can bring himself to be as cruel to his children and to the members of his household as is the raven. Such was the case with R. Adda bar Mattena, who was leaving [home] to study Torah. When his wife asked him, “How will I provide food or your children?” he answered, “Is watercress no longer in the marsh?”
BT. Eruvin 21b-22a.
The exodus from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea demonstrated to Israel for all time God’s special closeness at extraordinary moments. But only by their journey through the wilderness, which was only now beginning, were they to learn that one can place his trust in God under all circumstances, even for the provision of everyday necessities; that even daily, petty human needs are the concern of His providence; that the eye of God is on those who fear Him, on their every breath. . . This Torah ---- which requires that every second of our daily lives be spent in the service of God ----requires, as indispensable traits, confidence in the presence of God at all times and in every place. The Torah requires the certainty that if we do His Will, He will guide us, safe and happy, through the most desolate deserts of our lives, and will sweeten for us the bitterest experience that life can offer us.
The Hirsch Chumash, Exodus 15:25.
D. R. Yosi says, “For the days of Jeremiah. Because Jeremiah would say to the Israelites, `Busy yourselves with Torah!’ [The Israelites would respond,] `If we busy ourselves with Torah, how are we going to sustain ourselves?’ He would bring out the jar of manna and say to them, `Look at that which your forefathers, who busied themselves with Torah, sustained themselves! The same with you! If you busy yourselves with Torah, God will ultimately sustain you!”
Mekhilta De-Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, on Exodus, 16:34.
“The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today… The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”
Seneca.
. . . It is only through imagination that one can reach that consciousness of universal creativeness which constitutes the dynamic and inexhaustible meaning of life.
Matei Calinescu.
The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in the most primitive forms---this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness.
Albert Einstein, quoted in Eliade, Journal III 59.
A labyrinth is a defense, sometimes a magical defense, built to guard a center, a treasure, a meaning. Entering it can be a rite of initiation, as we see in the Theseus myth. That symbolism is the model of all existence, which passes through many ordeals to journey toward its own center. . . Once the center has been reached, we are enriched, our consciousness is broadened and deepened, so that everything becomes clear, meaningful; but life goes on: another labyrinth, other encounters, other kinds of trials, on another level.
Mircea Eliade, Ordeal, 185.
. . . One arrives at God out of despair.
Mircea Eliade, Journal I, 13.
Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods or lives or the fruits (of your toil) but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere, who say, when afflicted with calamity, “To God we belong, and to him is our return.”
Sura 2, verse 155-56.
. . . the “sacred” is always hidden behind the mask of the “profane” realities or actions . . . religious experience consists of “tearing off the veil” and of ripping off the mask.
Mircea Eliade, Journal III 136.
Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest of intelligence---whether much that is glorious---whether all that is profound---does not spring from disease of thought---from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect. They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in waking, to find that they have been upon the verge of the great secret.
Edgar Allan Poe (1848/1975, p. 649).
Therefore whoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; And the rain descended, and the flood came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
Matthew 7:24-25.
18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. 19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. 20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; 21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. 22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. 23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Matthew 13:10-23.
In spite of his profound acquirements and widely spread fame, he could not succeed in obtaining an office to secure a comfortable home for himself and his family. In consequence of his uninterrupted studies, he lived so entirely in an ideal world, that he perhaps lost sight of the claims of practical life. Whatever he undertook proved a failure, so that he at last exclaimed: “I cannot become rich, the fates are against me; Were I a dealer in shrouds, no man would ever die. Ill-starred was my birth, unpropitious the planets; Were I a seller of candles, the sun would never set.”. . He declares several times in his writings, that the true happiness of the pious is not increased by useless and unstable possessions. “Blind-hearted men,” he says in his Commentary on Genesis (xxv.34), “think that the possession of riches is a sign of excellency for the righteous, but the example of Elijah proves this contrary.” Hence we do not discover in his [Ibn Ezra’s] works any sign of downcast spirit, or of weariness of life; but we find him on the contrary always vigorous, lively, full of wit and humour, full of love for his people and for his national literature, full of trust and confidence in the Almighty, fired by an ardent desire continually to improve himself and others.
Intro to Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on Isaiah.
We ought therefore earnestly to meditate and dwell on those important points; that so we may attain conviction without all scruple, that the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good; that he is with us and keepeth us in all places whither we go, and giveth us bread to eat, and raiment to put on; that he is present and conscious to our innermost thoughts; and that we have a most absolute and immediate dependence on him. A clear view of which great truths cannot choose but fill our hearts with an awful circumspection and holy fear, which is the strongest incentive to virtue, and the best guard against vice.
Bishop Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Principle # 155.
For after all, what deserves the first place in our studies, is the consideration of God, and our duty; which to promote, as it was the main drift and design of my labours, so shall I esteem them altogether useless and ineffectual, if by what I have said I cannot inspire my readers with a pious sense of the presence of God: having shewn the falseness or vanity of those barren speculations, which make the chief employment of learned men, the better dispose them to reverence and embrace the salutary truths of the Gospel, which to know and to practice is the highest perfection of human nature.
Bishop Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Principle # 156.
It is therefore plain, that nothing can be more evident to any one that is capable of the least reflexion, than the existence of God, or a spirit who is intimately present to our minds, producing in them all that variety or ideas or sensations, which continually affect us, on whom we have an absolute and entire dependence, in short, `in whom we live, and move, and have our being’ [Acts 17:28]. That the discovery of this great truth which lies so near and obvious to the mind, should be attained to by the reason of so very few, is a sad instance of the stupidity and inattention of men who, though they are surrounded with such clear manifestations of the Deity, are yet so little affected by them, that they seem as it were blinded with excess of light.
Bishop Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Principle # 149.
This teaches you that anyone who cherishes wealth and pleasure is unable to study the Oral Torah, for that involves much suffering and lack of sleep, and one must wear himself out and degrade himself over it. Therefore, its reward is given only in the World to Come . . ..
Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 3.
Torah cannot be learnt if studied with indifference, with easy-going complacency. It abides with him who gives himself up to it entirely, who does not fight shy of privations, who strives for nothing else, and lives modestly only for Torah.
If a man is able to occupy himself with Torah and neglects to do so, or if he has once occupied himself with Torah and then abandoned it in order to give himself up to the world and its vanities, of him it is said, He despised the word of the Lord.
He who deserts the Torah in plenty will one day do so in want, but he who does not turn from it in want will one day cling to it in plenty.
When God comes to judge your life, you will first have to explain why
you have not studied and then why you have not performed; for the way to
performance is through study (Y. D. 246).
Horeb, p. 372.
He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
John 12:25.
For another foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, (either ) gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, stubble, that work will be made manifest; for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work (that he builds upon the foundation) remains, he will receive a reward. If his work burns he will suffer the loss, but he will be saved, but as by fire.
1 Cor. 3:11-15.
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. 7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. 9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. 11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; 12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: 13 Being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. 14 I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. 15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
I Corinthians 4:5-16.
If you are risen with Christ, seek those things above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Concentrate on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead to the world and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall you also appear with him in glory.
Col. 3:1-4.
Do not be anxious (impatient) about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil. 4:6-7.
You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is steadfast because of trust in you. Because he trusteth in thee. Trust in the Lord forever: For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.
Isaiah 26:3.
But my God will supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Phil. 4:19.
Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
1 John 4:4.
By faith Moses, when he had achieved greatness (in Egypt), refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter choosing instead to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, reasoning that the disgrace for the sake of Christ was greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was sure that he would receive his reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured by seeing the invisible assets (of his faith).
Hebrews 11:24-27.
Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your cares on him for he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7.
But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That’s why, for Christ’s sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardship, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Cor. 12:9-10.
When I came to you brothers, I came not with excellency of speech or wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my doctrine and my preaching were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power; that your faith should not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1 Cor. 2:1-5.
“I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”
Jeremiah 32:27.
No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance, despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him; on those whose hope is on His unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
Psalm 33:16-19.
The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.
Exodus 14:14.
No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs. He wants to please his commanding officer.
2 Tim. 2:4.
Do not be conform any longer to the pattern of this world. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Roman. 12:2.
. . . One of the paradoxes in the Christian life is that so frequently God must make us completely miserable in order to make us completely happy. He often must remove every human and material crutch we lean upon before He can bless us. We think, “My answer to happiness is this . . . person,” and lean on that person. So God kicks that prop out form under us. Then we say “It is this . . . thing.” And God kicks that prop out from under us. We try this and we try that; we think this is necessary, and God removes them all. The time may come very shortly when God will kick all the props out from under us in this wonderful way of life we have in this country. There may be a time very shortly when you will long for a good bath. God is trying to tell us, “There is only one thing that is necessary, and that is to trust Me, to lean on Me.”
. . . Now I want you to be able to understand the pattern of your life today, that regardless of the initial cause of your problems, difficulties or trials, God is speaking to you through those experience. Though your heart may be broken, your problems difficult, the situation hopeless, He bides you to try the one thing that works---the only thing that works: continuous, unceasing trust! Wait on the Lord!
It becomes necessary sometimes for God to take everything away form us in order to understand that. He may have to make us so miserable that we will crawl in the dust. God does not want to do that, but He may have to so that we will learn to trust Him, to lean on him, to delight in Him. “Delight thyself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
. . . So we have trials; we have problems that have no human solution. We have things which are beyond us, things which have no obvious way out. These test us to stay in the faith-rest life, to claim His promises, to live in His Word, to believe and to use the things which He has provided for us. Therefore, you can expect as long as you live periodic testing. And occasionally the roof will fall in or the rug will be pulled out from under you or your whole world will seemingly collapse, constituting even a greater test, a crisis test to see if you will still claim these promises and live in the Word.
. . . It is easy to trust the Lord when everything is going right. It is easy to trust the Lord when you have been stirred up emotionally. It is easy to trust the Lord when everything is going your way. But do you trust the Lord when the picture is black? If you get to the place where you think you do, then take heed, for God is going to test that position! There are believers who this very week have been tested. God has said, “Do you really trust Me? Do you really believe My Word”? And just as you begin to think you do, and the situation is clearing God says, “Now I am going to blank out this situation; I am going to make it look hopeless and black. Do you still believe Me?”
. . . It pays to wait upon the One whose decisions are wiser than our decisions. And our decisions are suspended by faith as we wait on Him. Yet instead, our tendency is more often to try this first or do that, or move somewhere to escape the hopeless situation here, or to insist on a decision right now---we just must do something! But the more we do the more we tangle up the situation. The less we try and the more we trust, the quicker can God bring the solution. And the greater will be the blessing all of the time, even before the solution breaks.
Faith Rest Life --- Excerpt.
R. B. Thieme Jr.
The self-control and commitment required to watch your house burn down while you refrain from saving it is awe inspiring. We should never see such loss in our lives. However, we can learn from this the proper priorities in our lives. We need to value “stuff” less, value lives more and recognize that the religious life can sometimes demand great sacrifice. And those sacrifices are worth it.
Rabbi commenting on adhering to the dictates of Shabat.
[The following is an excerpt from Rabbi Hirsch, Horeb, Training Through Suffering, p. 35.]
Understand therefore your sufferings, and give thanks for them as for the truest gift of a father; they are sent to train and to test. As training they teach you to know yourself, your nothingness and your greatness; they teach you to know God, His power and His goodness, and give you strength to live in the active service of God. As tests, they promote inner purity, they strengthen the inner powers, and make the pure and strong still purer and stronger.
“The sufferings of training teach you your nothingness and greatness.” As for your nothingness ---- when in the hour of good fortune you have received the gifts but in thinking of the gifts have forgotten the giver, when you have called yours what was only lent to you, and in this way arrogantly build yourself upon yourself, forgetting God and His will; when you have overstepped the bounds which God has set for you and used the goods lent to you to indulge your own caprice---then צרות sufferings, come into your dwelling and curb your presumption and teach you the limitations of your power; they remind you of the frailty of your health, the feebleness of your wit, the impotence of your will, the instability of your possessions, the inadequacy of your means, which have only been lent to you and must be returned as soon as the owner desires it. צרות visit you and teach you the nothingness of your false greatness, they teach you modesty.
But they teach you at the same time the imperishable character of your true greatness, the greatness which you ignored. If they take away from you, or even seriously impair, all that you have in life other than your very self----health, intelligence, wealth, friends, position----and show you how perishable is everything on which, as on an eternal basis, you thought to build your prosperity, so that nothing remains to you except your naked heart and the treasures that you find there, at the same time they teach you the lasting character of greatness, which you yourself are, of the goods which alone are yours, which alone are your work, the goods of your inner life to which otherwise you would pay no attention --- the fear of God, the love of God and trust in God. They also give you the consciousness of having performed and of performing your duty according to your powers. They show you in your nakedness your true vocation as a servant of God.
“God’s omnipotence and His love.” If in the abundance of the gifts showered on you, you do not behold God the Giver; if, because much has been given to you, you think that you are much, and do not observe that the more you have the less you become, and that while God’s greatness as Giver come to the forefront your greatness as receiver fades away; if then the thought of God flees from you, and, proudly imagining yourself to be master, you forget that God is your Master and Master of all that is yours, even of that which is in your own hands; then in suffering, in the wilderness of life, you see the omnipotence and the sovereignty of God, how everything is only from Him and through Him and endures only so long as His will allows it, and you bow before His awful greatness and majesty.
But at the same time you learn to commit yourself trustfully to His love, which is ever at hand. If in the midst of poverty you have still found food, if in nakedness you have still found clothing, if in sickness you have been healed, if in misery you have been sustained, if day by day God has started your life afresh and cared for you, and you have learnt from your own experience that man sustains life not only with bread made by his own hands but that he can live on every pronouncement of the Divine love; then, just as you have learnt to fear the omnipotence of God, so you learn to trust His love.
“And give you strength to be active in the service of God.” For only when the possessions of this world fade away and on their departure you look back on them and ask how you have used them, and you confess to yourself that you have misused the goodness of God, and you retain nothing more of these gifts than the painful consciousness of a sin-spent life, and you derive comfort only from those moments in your past on which you can allow your eye to rest with the consciousness that “at such-and-such a moment I was good and served God”; only when you are thus brought to realize that your real mission cannot be “to have” but must be “to perform God’s will,” whether much or little has been vouchsafed to you---if, then, suffering has filled you with the fear of God and trust in God, will you not recognize in these sufferings themselves the love of God which desires to train up its child? Will you not feel drawn to God in love, and so raise yourself above your previous life, renew your covenant with God, tread the path of repentance, and, with all that remains to you, with all that will yet be granted to you, step forth from your sufferings to a new life, strong in its purity and dedicated to God? And the strength to lead such a life comes from nothing so much as from suffering. Just because suffering forces a man back upon himself and into himself, and because he is deprived of all external help, every spark of strength which slumber in him is called forth, all those latent resources of his nature are awakened which, even without external support, can provide him with strength and independence, endurance and courage and self-command. In his outer poverty and degradation all his inner wealth and nobility are summoned to the lists and are nourished and strengthened in the struggle. And to him whom suffering teaches it brings also the strength to perform the law and to carry it out with vigor.
Thus, suffering is the purification of the inner man, and every pain, every tear, is a source of purity and dedication. Thus, through suffering your Father speaks to you, and it is well for you if you pay heed to His voice, well for you if in the small and great sufferings with which your Father shakes one section of your life-edifice you discern a warning to examine the foundation of your life, to test its course, to note what is damaged and to precede without delay from knowledge to action.
But if you are one of the fortunate ones who have remained free from faults and can lift up their faces to God---if you have never been so flushed with pride as to forget your dependence on God, even then God sends you sufferings---if not לענתך, to afflict you, since you have never forgotten your dependence, at any rate לנסתך, to try you, so as to elevate you and make your life perfect.
“To elevate you.” For just as the sinner acquires purity through suffering and the weak strength, so the pure acquire even greater purity and the strong even more unbending strength. For the strength which is not used becomes slack, and only from exercise does it recover its vigor. Similarly, the strength of mind and heart grows only through exercise, and the school for such exercise is suffering.
“To make your life perfect.” Man’s task in life has two sides, joy and sorrow, pain and delight, happiness and distress. Only he who has been through both of them has completely performed his task in life; for each side has its own duties, equally difficult, and to be fulfilled only in it. Will you then, pure as you are, murmur against the trials of suffering? Is not your whole life only a task? Is not every manifestation of your outer life, whatever form your outer life may take, only a different stage for the fulfillment of its duty to serve God? Will you prescribe to your God the place at which He should require your service? Are there not duties for misfortune, duties to be performed only in misfortune? Is not your life only half lived if you have only joys and nor sorrow? Nay, if you really understand your life as a task to be fulfilled, and esteem it only as such, will you know any difference between joy and sorrow, between good fortune and bad fortune? Will you not face either with equal serenity, discerning in each only the task which God imposes on you? [R.B. Thieme: equate living with dying, adversity with prosperity.]
This is also the point of the saying of the Sages: “If you see that sufferings come upon you, examine your life. If you have examined it and have found nothing blameworthy, then ask yourself whether you are acquainted with the model of the pure and good life in perfect accordance with the Torah so that you may examine your own life by comparing with that. If you have learnt it and have examined your own life and have still found nothing, then, happy man, know that your sufferings and are chastisement of love which God sends upon you because He loves you and because you love Him, in order to reinforce your love of God, to exalt you by trial, to perfect you, and, when you are perfect, to set you up as a pattern. For it is said: “Whom God loves, to him He sends sufferings, and like a father He chastises His son.” And it is further said: “He who looks upon his life as a task imposed by god knows no evil” (Berachoth, 5; Koheleth, viii, 5).
Rabbi Hirsch, Horeb, Training Through Suffering, p.35 (emphasis mine).
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourself in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58:9-11.
And truly it would fare ill with me if, not contented with the approbation of God alone, I were unable to despise the foolish and perverse censures of ignorant, as well as the malicious and unjust censures of ungodly men. For although, by the blessing of God, my most ardent desire has been to advance his kingdom, and promote the public good---although I feel perfectly conscious, and take God and his angels to witness, that ever since I began to discharge the office of teacher in the church, my only object has been to do good to the church, by maintaining the pure doctrine of godliness, and yet I believe there never was a man more assailed, stung, and torn by calumny --- [as well by the declared enemies of the truth of God, as by many worthless person who have crept into his church---as well by monks who have brought forth their frocks from their cloisters to spread infection wherever they come, as by other miscreants not better than they.] After this letter to the reader was in the press, I had undoubted information that, at Augsburg, where the Imperial Diet was held, a rumor of my defection to the papacy was circulated, and entertained, in the courts of the princes more readily than might have been expected. This forsooth, is the return made me by those who certainly are not unaware of numerous proofs of my constancy---proofs which, while they rebut the foul charge, ought to have defended me against it, with all humane and impartial judges. But the devil, with all his crew, is mistaken if he imagines that, by assailing me with vile falsehoods, he can either cool my zeal or diminish my exertions. I trust that God, in his infinite goodness, will enable me to persevere with unruffled patience in the course of his holy vocation. Of this I give the pious reader a new proof in the present edition.
Prefix to the last edition of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (emphasis mine).
37:title A Psalm of David.
1 Fret not thyself because of evildoers,
Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
4 Delight thyself also in the Lord;
And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
5 Commit thy way unto the Lord;
Trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light,
And thy judgment as the noonday.
7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him:
Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way,
Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath:
Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
9 For evildoers shall be cut off:
But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be:
Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
11 But the meek shall inherit the earth;
And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
12 The wicked plotteth against the just,
And gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
13 The Lord shall laugh at him:
For he seeth that his day is coming.
14 The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow,
To cast down the poor and needy,
And to slay such as be of upright conversation.
15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart,
And their bows shall be broken.
16 A little that a righteous man hath
Is better than the riches of many wicked.
17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken:
But the Lord upholdeth the righteous.
18 The Lord knoweth the days of the upright:
And their inheritance shall be for ever.
19 They shall not be ashamed in the evil time:
And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
20 But the wicked shall perish,
And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs:
They shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
21 The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again:
But the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.
22 For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth;
And they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.
23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord:
And he delighteth in his way.
24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down:
For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
25 I have been young, and now am old;
Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his seed begging bread.
26 He is ever merciful, and lendeth;
And his seed is blessed.
27 Depart from evil, and do good;
And dwell for evermore.
28 For the Lord loveth judgment,
And forsaketh not his saints;
They are preserved for ever:
But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
29 The righteous shall inherit the land,
And dwell therein for ever.
30 The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom,
And his tongue talketh of judgment.
31 The law of his God is in his heart;
None of his steps shall slide.
32 The wicked watcheth the righteous,
And seeketh to slay him.
33 The Lord will not leave him in his hand,
Nor condemn him when he is judged.
34 Wait on the Lord, and keep his way,
And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land:
When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.
35 I have seen the wicked in great power,
And spreading himself like a green bay tree.
36 Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not:
Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.
37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright:
For the end of that man is peace.
38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together:
The end of the wicked shall be cut off.
39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord:
He is their strength in the time of trouble.
40 And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them:
He shall deliver them from the wicked,
And save them, because they trust in him.
For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his footsteps. “He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
2 Peter 2:19-25.
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
1 Peter 4:12-14.
Help Lord, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men. Everyone lies to his neighbor; their flattering lips speak with deception. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue that says “We will triumph with our tongue; we own our lips---who is our master?” . . . O Lord, you will keep us safe and protect us from such people forever. The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.
Psalms 12.
What I want to bring out is that, although we depend on the true and truly holy Divinity for such things as are needed to support our weakness in this present life, nevertheless, we should not seek and worship God for the sake of the passing cloud of this mortal life, but for the sake of that happy life which cannot be other than everlasting. . . . At times, one hesitates to reprove or admonish evil-doers, either because one seeks a more favorable moment or fears that rebuke may make them worse, and further, discourage weak brethren from striving to lead a good and holy life, or turn them aside from the faith. In such circumstances, forbearance is not prompted by selfish considerations, but by well-advised charity. What is reprehensible, however, is that, while leading good lives themselves and abhorring those of wicked men, some, fearing to offend, shut their eyes to evil deeds instead of condemning them and point out their malice. To be sure, the motive behind their tolerance is that they may suffer no hurt in the possession of those temporal goods which virtuous and blameless men may lawfully enjoy; still, there is more self-seeking here than becomes men who are mere sojourners in this world and who profess the hope of a home in heaven.
St. Augustine, City of God, Book VII, preface (p. 135); Book I, chapter 9,
p. 47.
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. 9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. 10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. 11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. 12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. 13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
James 5:7-29.
Hear this, all ye people;
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
2 Both low and high,
Rich and poor, together.
3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom;
And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
4 I will incline mine ear to a parable:
I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil,
When the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
6 They that trust in their wealth,
And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother,
Nor give to God a ransom for him:
8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious,
And it ceaseth for ever:)
9 That he should still live for ever,
And not see corruption.
10 For he seeth that wise men die,
Likewise the fool and the brutish person perish,
And leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever,
And their dwelling places to all generations;
They call their lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not:
He is like the beasts that perish.
13 This their way is their folly:
Yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave;
Death shall feed on them;
And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;
And their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave:
For he shall receive me. Selah.
16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich,
When the glory of his house is increased;
17 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away:
His glory shall not descend after him.
18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul:
And men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.
19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
They shall never see light.
20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth not,
Is like the beasts that perish.
Psalms 49.
What we cannot by our own will impose, we can by the act of renunciation of our own will evoke. What we cannot accomplish through coercion, we can achieve through submission. God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves----when we do for God what God cannot make us do. This means, in a wholly concrete and tangible sense, love God with all the heart, the soul, the might we have. God then stands above the rules of the created world, because God will respond not to what we do in conformity to the rules alone, but also to what we do beyond the requirement of the rules. God is above the rules, and we can gain a response from God when, on some one, unique occasion, we too do more than obey----but love, spontaneously and all at once, with the whole of our being.
Jacob Neusner, Androgynous Judaism, p. 12.
As for the knight of faith, he is assigned to himself alone, he has the pain of being unable to make himself intelligible to others but feels no vain desire to show others the way. The pain is the assurance, vain desires are unknown to him, his mind is too serious for that. The false knight readily betrays himself by this instantly acquired proficiency; he just doesn't grasp the point that if another individual is to walk the same path he has to be just as much the individual and is therefore in no need of guidance, least of all from one anxious to press his services on others. Here again, people unable to bear the martyrdom of unintelligibility jump off the path, and choose instead, conveniently enough, the world's admiration of their proficiency. The true knight of faith is a witness, never a teacher, and in this lies the deep humanity in him which is more worth than this foolish concern for others' weal and woe which is honored under the name of sympathy, but which is really nothing but vanity. A person who wants only to be a witness confesses thereby that no one, not even the least, needs another person's sympathy, or is to be put down so another can raise himself up. But because what he himself won he did not win on the cheap, so neither does he sell it on the cheap; he is not so pitiable as to accept people’s admiration and pay for it with silent contempt; he knows that whatever truly is great is available equally for all.
Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling.
See, says the law, God is just; He rewards for their goodness even those that hate Him and would gladly see Him removed from the scene in order that there may be no bar to their wrongdoing. Even these God rewards for the good they have done, but He rewards them in the sphere of their desires--- "in the sphere of their desires He repays them." If their activity is selfish, if it consists in earthly, external wrongdoing, if it aims only at external, and therefore transitory, prosperity and joy, then their reward also is only in the transitory. Let them enjoy their transitory wrongdoing, wealth and prosperity, and perish like what they have acquired. But for those who seek only God, and choose the fulfillment of His will as their life's task, for those who pursue only the eternal, the reward is also eternal. For a thousand generations they remain as a blessing with their doing and striving, their suffering and sacrifices. Look at the Patriarchs! The whole of humanity was to be their reward here below, and they themselves were without home or country, living in the future.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb, p. 31.
