John Tillman - The Park Forum

January 10, 2022January 8, 2022

How Not to Read Scripture

Scripture Focus: Job 10.12-14
12 You gave me life and showed me kindness,
and in your providence watched over my spirit.
13 “But this is what you concealed in your heart,
and I know that this was in your mind:
14 If I sinned, you would be watching me
and would not let my offense go unpunished.

From John: As we embark on this new order of reading the Bible, it seems appropriate to look back on this rewritten reminder from 2020 of how NOT to read the Bible.

Reflection: How Not to Read Scripture
By John Tillman

In part of today’s passage, Job describes a God who seems deceptive. Job accuses God of using kindness to mask a secret desire to harm Job when he inevitably sins. Is this God real? Should we be ducking for cover from a God who is out to get us?

Sometimes when we read the Bible we forget who is talking and why. It is not always God talking. Every phrase is not always an actionable directive or nugget of “truth” we can apply. We need to see the bigger picture.

In this passage, God is not telling us that he is out to get us. Job is sharing his emotionally charged opinion with his friends. Job is conjecturing, not speaking for God. Later, God will condemn Job’s words as “darkening his counsels” and being “words without knowledge.” (Job 38.1-3)

We also can “darken God’s counsels” when we speak words from the Bible without knowledge. It is an error to think of the scripture as the “words of God” instead of the “Word of God.” The Bible is God’s Word—his perfect revelation, but it is not a transcript of God’s unambiguous commands. The Bible is a work of art, not a manual.

Some may fear this lowers the Bible’s authority or lessens the miraculous spiritual nature of the Bible. The opposite is true. We rob the Word of God of its power when we think of it as merely an owner’s manual of unimaginative, dictated instructions. No analogy is perfect but the instruction manual analogy for the Bible is particularly flawed.

If the Bible is an instruction manual, we should skim it and toss it in the closet. This is how many DO treat it but this is how not to read scripture. No one ever found joy and companionship from re-reading an instruction manual.

The Bible is more akin to a pointillistic painting. When you zoom in far enough, all you might see is a few dots of red, blue, or yellow. You have to step back to see the likeness the artist has created.

This is why is it vital that Christians read the whole Bible and read it regularly and why we follow a whole-Bible reading plan. In this way, we are equipped to view the Word of God as a work of art that reveals who God is, what God is doing, and what God expects us to do.

*View the world’s most famous pointillistic painting, “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”, by Georges Seurat at this link.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. — Psalm 103.1-2a

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Job 10 (Listen – 2:12)
Psalm 17 (Listen – 1:58)

Read more from How to Read Prophetic Judgment
There are many prophecies that are meant to comfort us. But the more typical function of prophecy is to cause us discomfort.

How to Read Prophetic Judgment :: Readers’ Choice

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January 7, 2022January 5, 2022

Prayer When None Are Faithful — Guided Prayer

Scripture Focus: Psalm 12
1 Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore;
those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.
2 Everyone lies to their neighbor;
they flatter with their lips
but harbor deception in their hearts.
3 May the Lord silence all flattering lips
and every boastful tongue—
4 those who say,
“By our tongues we will prevail;
our own lips will defend us—who is lord over us?”
5 “Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan,
I will now arise,” says the Lord.
“I will protect them from those who malign them.”
6 And the words of the Lord are flawless,
like silver purified in a crucible,
like gold refined seven times.
7 You, Lord, will keep the needy safe
and will protect us forever from the wicked,
8 who freely strut about
when what is vile is honored by the human race.

Reflection: Prayer When None Are Faithful — Guided Prayer
By John Tillman

In Psalm 12 we see a cry and a response. The psalmist cries out about lies, deception, and boastful leaders. God responds, saying, “I will now arise…” God’s response also gives us a clue about who the lies targeted and who suffered under the deceptive and false leaders: the poor.

God says the “poor are plundered” and the “needy groan.” He says they have been “maligned” but that he will keep them safe and protect them from the wicked.

When we look around at our society, we can easily relate to the psalmist’s cries from Psalm 12. The costs of lies are all around us. Violence. Confusion. Desperation. Loss of life. They fill our news programs, newsfeeds, and memories. Over this weekend, reflect on Psalm 12 and pray this prayer based on its themes.

Prayer When None Are Faithful
Help, Lord, for no one is faithful!
Kings promise help but only help themselves.
Leaders demand loyalty, while planning betrayals
Braggarts call themselves “saviors” to boost their influence.

Boasting and flattering people rise up
They weaponize their words and destroy
They threaten and pretend to be joking
They cause death and deny responsibility

We are dismayed, Lord…
We are sheep among wicked shepherds…

Will only braggarts lead?
Will only the boastful hold sway?
Will deception take root and blossom?
Will disdain and derision take bows to applause?
Will people believe anything so long as it insults their enemy?
Will people deny any authority other than their own desires and their own words?
Is there any loyalty left to the truth?
Is there anyone faithful?

Rise up, Lord, and protect the poor from the powerful
Sweep down, Lord, and shield those being crushed, defending truth
Speak up, Lord, and drown out boastful lies designed to deceive the elect
Step down, Lord, and make those that strut pridefully stumble into their own traps.

Come, Lord Jesus, the Way. Lead us away from wicked shepherds.
Come, Lord Jesus, the Truth. Cut down idolatrous liars with the sword of your mouth.
Come, Lord Jesus, the Life. Fill us with living water that heals us from the inside out.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me out of all my terror. — Psalm 34.4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Job 7 (Listen – 2:23)
Psalm 11-12 (Listen – 1:59)

This Weekend’s Readings
Job 8 (Listen – 2:09), Psalm 13-14 (Listen – 1:43)
Job 9 (Listen – 3:22), Psalm 15-16 (Listen – 2:03)

Join us! Walk through the Bible with us…
Join us. Hear from God through God’s Word this year…

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Read more about The Floodlight of Epiphany
May lies and liars be exposed.
May truth shine, expelling every dark, deceitful shadow.
May the darkness of violence have no shelter in our hearts.

The Floodlight of Epiphany

January 4, 2022January 4, 2022

Grace Over Grit

Scripture Focus: Job 4.5-6
5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6 Should not your piety be your confidence
and your blameless ways your hope?

Reflection: Grace Over Grit
By John Tillman

Change is in the air in early January. Resolve. Renewal. Rededication.

These are all helpful and healthful in many ways. We can often affect physical, financial, and moral change with just some determination, grit, and stick-to-itiveness. But how do we treat ourselves and others when things fail or fail to produce the results we expect?

When the pious face problems, pride tells us we are being wronged. We may have a harder time accepting the situation. We’ve worked too hard for this to happen, haven’t we?

The wicked expect no “rest” (Isaiah 48.22; 57.20-21) but the righteous do. What happens when the peace and rest which the righteous expect is disturbed? This is the question Job’s narrative pokes at.

Seeing Job’s situation, his friend, Eliphaz assured Job that God was still good and that “piety” and “blameless” ways should give Job hope. He was half right.

Eliphaz and Job’s other friends will end up giving Job some terrible commentary and bad takes about his situation. (Look for more about that from Erin tomorrow.) They start as Eliphaz does, by assuring Job that if he was truly blameless then all would be well. They will end up accusing him, saying his suffering must be punishment for a sin he is concealing. I’m convinced that most of what they said came from a motivation of fear. They were looking for assurance that, “This can’t happen to me.”

If Job, the most righteous person they knew, could experience these things, then what hope did they have? What security could they hold on to? What comfort could they take, even in their current situation of blessing?

Eliphaz is right that God is good. His error, and ours, comes in turning around and putting hope and faith in other, more tangible things. God is good, as long as I have… fill-in-the-blank.

Whatever we might fill that blank in with, Job lost it. If it happened to Job, it can happen to us. Job looked like a failure to his friends but in his suffering he was faithfully following God. We need to have faith not in our grit or our gains but in God’s grace. God’s grace is sufficient. Our grit is not.

When we see sufferers like Job, we need to remember that God’s grace may be more powerfully at work in them than we can see.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Our help is in the Name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. — Psalm 124.8

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Job 4 (Listen – 2:06)
Psalm 7-8 (Listen – 2:58)

From John: In this new year, we are tweaking our reading plan. We will still read all of the same books as are typically in our “even year” plan. However, we will read them in a roughly chronological order. We will not jump around from book to book (many books are written in overlapping times) but we will read them in an order that is as close to chronological order without breaking the books up. Readers have expressed interest in this and we are looking forward to seeing scriptures fall at new times of the year and becoming more familiar with how the writers of scripture depended on one another and finding new connections as we read in this manner. We will work on a graphic of the new reading plans over the next couple of months and will provide it when it is available. Thank you for your readership and for your prayer and financial support! Happy New Year!

Read more about Fruitful in Suffering
We can be fruitful in the land of our suffering, not by our own cleverness, craft, or scheming, but by the Holy Spirit.

Fruitful in Suffering

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January 3, 2022January 1, 2022

New Days Begin in the Dark

Scripture Focus: Job 3.25-27
      25 What I feared has come upon me;
         what I dreaded has happened to me.
      26 I have no peace, no quietness;
         I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

Psalm 6.3-6
      3 My soul is in deep anguish.
         How long, LORD, how long?
      4 Turn, LORD, and deliver me;
         save me because of your unfailing love.
      5 Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
         Who praises you from the grave?
      6 I am worn out from my groaning.
         All night long I flood my bed with weeping
         and drench my couch with tears.

Reflection: New Days Begin in the Dark
By John Tillman

As Job mourns what he has lost, he curses the day of his birth. He avoids cursing God but he curses the day of his creation and he alludes to creation events.

Job does not want God to “care about” the moment of his birth. This alludes to God “hovering” over the waters which birthed the land. He does not want God to speak light, but to let the darkness overwhelm him. (Job 3.4) He wishes for no stars and no morning light to come. (Job 3.9) He wants time itself to ignore the day, leaving it unrecorded on a calendar. He wishes for creation to be barren and for the chaos monster, Leviathan to be roused.

Job’s despair led to a desire for deconstruction, uncreation, death. It’s a common thought process. For the past two years, Netflix has created darkly comic documentaries about the year: “Death to 2020” and “Death to 2021”

Many now mourn, like Job. Loss, violence, and plague have come. Famine of basic necessities has struck countries, like the United States, unused to the slightest inconvenience. Famine of spiritual things also has fallen—a famine of faith, a famine of hope, and a famine of love.

But the most terrible of these is a famine of love. This is the dark chaos many feel.

A Jewish day does not begin at the stroke of midnight or the rising of the sun but at the sun’s setting. Genesis establishes this pattern: “there was evening and there was morning—the first day.” (Genesis 1.5) It’s a modern development for us to think a new day, or a new year, begins at the stroke of midnight. However, new days do begin in the dark.

The world began when God hovered over dark chaos and spoke light. Humanity began when God molded earth and breathed life into it. Though like Job, sufferers may wish destruction, unmaking, or death to our pasts, we can be assured that God intends life, light, and hope for us. He will hear and answer our cries.

God does hover, caringly over our dark chaos. He does cause his light to shine on us. He marks our days with stars in the heavens and sends the Morningstar to rise in our hearts. The Holy Spirit guarantees even the darkness of death will succumb to light.

Every good thing the Father of lights has for us will come. Even in the dark.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; let us exalt his name together. — Psalm 34.3

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Job 3 (Listen – 2:32)
Psalm 5-6 (Listen – 2:45)

Read more about Lamenting With Job :: Guided Prayer
With the help of the Holy Spirit lament can swallow up complaining in our lives. Lament is frequent and important in the Bible and should be in our lives.

Lamenting With Job :: Guided Prayer

Read more about A Generational Lament
God accepts the prayer of the despairing and the cries of the frustrated and broken more quickly than the prayers of the proud.

A Generational Lament

December 31, 2021December 29, 2021

New Year, New Adam, New Creation

Scripture Focus: Revelation 22.3, 17
No longer will there be any curse….The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

Reflection: New Year, New Adam, New Creation
By John Tillman

In recent times, many have cursed outgoing years for their sufferings. 2019 was blamed for much. 2020 was blamed for more. 2021 will get its share of curses and blame.

Traditionally, a new year inspires hope. This doesn’t seem as true anymore. When our traumatized culture looks to the new year, anticipation is often tainted with trepidation. It’s easy to see why. When one has been burned so often, warm feelings about the future are fleeting.

Traditional images of New Year celebrations include the old year, personified by an old man, (Sometimes called “Father Time”) and the new year, by a baby. The baby brings the incoming blessings of the new year and the old man carries the old year’s curses to the grave.

Baby New Year represents hope for the future. However, just like 2020 and 2021 failed to prove much better than 2019, a new generation is unlikely to prove much better than the last. We tend to get stuck in the sins of our forefathers rather than free ourselves from them. Short of a miracle, one year, or one generation can’t reverse the mistakes of the past.

Christians do, however, hope in a miraculous child. Better than a baby new year, Jesus is a new Adam. All creation will be renewed in him. In Jesus, we find a baby who is able to redeem his forefathers, a child who is able to lead reborn children of God, and a king who is able to overturn the wrongs of prior kingdoms.

The old years don’t really deserve cursing but our old selves do. The years weren’t the problem. We were—and are. We have carried out our own curse since Eden, however, God stands ready to reverse it. Neither the year nor those who lived through it are cursed if we are in Christ.

Christ takes our curse in himself and births in us a new self that owes no debt to sin and no death to the grave. The new Adam makes us new creations. Our “old man” is not killed and replaced so much as renewed and reinvigorated with living water that gives life forevermore.

As we enter the new year, rather than curse the past, let us bless the future. Let us drink freely of, and offer to the world “the free gift of the water of life.”

Image: Father Time and Baby New Year from Postcard, 1909 (Public Domain)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Be pleased, O God, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me. — Psalm 70.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.Today’s Readings
2 Chronicles 36 (Listen – 4:26)
Revelation 22 (Listen – 3:59)

This Weekend’s Readings
Job 1 (Listen – 3:38) Psalm 1-2 (Listen – 2:05)
Job 2 (Listen – 2:11) Psalm 3-4 (Listen – 1:56)

Read more about Supporting our Work
Your support this year enabled us to bless ministry students with scholarships. One of our student writers, Karen from Saint Louis says, “Getting to know John and some of the guest writers was a great encouragement. The monetary gift was an unexpected cherry on top. Thank you for your support and for your vision to encourage seminary students in our pursuit of God’s calling for our lives.”

Supporting our Work

Read more about The Curse Reversed
In the curse of Eden, God commits himself to a course of intervention on our behalf. The curse is made to be broken.

The Curse Reversed—Readers’ Choice