What is a human? What are we for and what is our purpose? How you answer that question will determine how you view life and reality. The truth is something that is scary, but also more fantastical and better than any answer we could invent.
What is a human? What are we for and what is our purpose? How you answer that question will determine how you view life and reality. The truth is something that is scary, but also more fantastical and better than any answer we could invent.
Welcome to The Willing Fool. This is Episode 7 of Season 4. Next to last episode of the season. And thank you for joining once again. I am your host and lead fool, Paul Tremble. We are going to continue where we left off last episode in talking about this concept of the vocation. Uh, the calling of Anyone who chooses to embrace this vocation, but specifically this is from the scriptures and it is something that begins on the very first pages of Genesis where humankind is called to be an image of God to extend God's goodness and rulership throughout all of creation and it's a call that Uh, it's not, it's not supposed to be segmented to a certain group of people or, you know, only a particular sect.
It's really portrayed as a universal calling for all of humanity. In other words, it answers the question, what are we, like, what are we here for? And the answer, your answer to that question is going to determine most. Almost everything about how you view life How you view reality what sort of judgments you make what lens you put on what you're seeing and experiencing What you're bringing to what you're seeing?
So what are we who are we what are we here for? Do we have a purpose? This is an answer to that question and we've talked throughout this season about Sort of the standard answer of our culture to that question, which is there is no answer to that question. Anything that you are or any purpose that you come up with is just that.
Something that you come up with. You have to invent your own identity, invent your own definition of what humanity is. There is no agreed upon definition or meaning outside ourselves and our feelings and our own thoughts. And that's a very, very different answer and it leaves the field completely open to trying to invent an identity and a purpose, whole cloth.
And I don't think we're really doing that in our culture. I think that's why you have so much existential angst, so much anxiety, uh, and just the, the overweening obsession with identity and expression that right now is kind of manifesting through. gender issues, sexuality issues. Those are very hot button topics.
And I think it's because people are just, they're very desperate to find an identity and, and, um, some meaning. And, and those are the building blocks that they can find at hand at the moment. Uh, and I'm, I'm broad brushing there, of course, but sometimes you have to do that to say anything meaningful.
Anyway, this vocation is very different than that. It assumes that, you know, there really is a purpose to human life. There is something that humans are created to be that is true, regardless of whether you know it or understand it or believe it or not. It's what we're called to be. And it's really pretty amazing.
I'm reading in Isaiah, and um, this is a passage that I think speaks to that. It says,
And rulers will rule justly. Each will be a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the rain, like streams of water in a dry land, and the shade of a massive rock in an arid land. Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the eyes of those who hear will listen. It goes on from there. I love this passage because it describes people as, uh, We are meant to rule.
It's talking about rulers who serve as a shelter from the wind for people, a refuge from the rain. Think about if you were in a dry land, a desert, and you're just craving water, so thirsty. These people are like streams of water or shade that you would desperately need in a desert. And so this, this vocation is not about simply moral perfection or being good enough.
It's really Uh, in large part, it's about helping humans, helping other humans flourish to have what they need to do well by people to, to serve a purpose in nurturing, nourishing, supporting other people. So there's this element of, of deep bringing of life and bringing of healing that is more than just a nice idea.
Excuse me more than just a nice idea It's our purpose It's what we are made to do and to bring to the table And of course being on the receiving end of life and healing is part of that deal, too um, we can receive as well as give but This is part of the calling in addition to that. There's an element of a really close intimacy.
Isaiah 42 is one of the famous, what are sometimes referred to as servant songs. So passages from an Isaiah where this quote servant is described. Now I'm gonna make a couple comments about this after I read it, but here's Isaiah 42. This is my servant. I strengthen him. This is my chosen one. I delight in him.
I have put my spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not break a ruse bruised reed. He will not put out a smoldering wick. He will faithfully bring justice He will not grow weak or be discouraged until he has established justice on earth The islands will wait for his instructions later on it goes and says I will keep an appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations Maybe you've heard that phrase before a light to the nations, but this is an incredible image of this Servant, uh, who God says, I delight in him.
He's chosen. I, I strengthen him. I put my spirit in him, and he's coming and he's bringing light to the nations. He's bringing justice to the nations. He's gonna do it faithfully. Everybody's waiting. And so Christians who read this, they read this and they think, oh, okay. This is a prophecy about the Messiah to come, which was fulfilled in Jesus.
And I think that is true. Many Jews who read this. Uh, would disagree with that, but they would say, Oh, this is meant to be a description of Israel, the people of Israel who collectively are represented by the servant and perhaps in some ways, at least in some scriptures, Isaiah himself, the prophet fulfilled this, this description as a representative of the people.
That's, that's a biblical idea that one person can at times represent. Um. His, his group, his larger group. Uh, so those are similar ideas. I think both of them are quite valid. Of course, as a Christian, I'm going to say that, yeah, Isaiah probably did fulfill some of these as a representative of the people.
Um, and also Jesus did fulfill these passages. He, he met this profile that this description is about. So both obviously can be true at the same time. It does not have to be only an either or. Um, But what I wanted to highlight here was just the, the intimacy that you hear described between, between God and the servant.
And just as we could say, well, this is about Israel, or this is about a faithful subset or remnant of Israel. Or we could say it's about Isaiah, or we could say it's about Jesus. I would say by extension, not primarily, but by extension, This can be a description of anybody who wishes to be. A servant and an arrow in the quiver of God, um, that he can delight in any one of us, that he can use any one of us to bring justice and a light to the nations.
That doesn't mean you're going to displace what Jesus did. Obviously that was quite unique and only Jesus could have done, but some of these components are Not just we can do it, but we're, we're supposed to do it. We're supposed to follow in that pathway. We're supposed to follow in that same description and, and want to meet that profile.
And so there's really an element of great intimacy here. So this, this calling, this vocation, it includes bringing life and healing. It's not just about being a goody two shoes, good enough, um, checking all the boxes. And, and there's an element of real relational intimacy. Another aspect of this that I wanted to bring out is, there's a, there's a, there's an end point to this.
There's an end goal, uh, telios is a word that's used sometimes, like a purpose for all this and where it's going. And, uh, I'm not going to point to any one scripture on this, I'm just going to paint the general picture and leave it up to you to research more if you like. But the idea is, with the people of God, that, God is going to mold and shape them to, to, to change them over time, to bring them more and more into his own nature and more and more into his own way of being an agenda to the point that they take a place alongside God in ruling, in ruling over.
And if you remember in previous episodes, we talked about this. This is this idea that biblically it's not just a story about humans, but there's these, this is spiritual realm with all sorts of spiritual beings, including those who are quite close to God and, and, you know, they're not God almighty.
They're not the most high, but, but they are, they are, they do have some power. They do have some delegated authority and power and strength and influence. And these are, these are in many cases, um, sort of a next layer of authority underneath. God underneath the most high God and the idea biblically is that humans will actually be over the course of time elevated to a place even above those beings and take their ultimately rightful place alongside God sitting on thrones judging you see this referred to in many scriptures sprinkled throughout Uh, sprinkled throughout the Bible, Matthew 19 talks about the apostles ruling and, um, being an authority, 1 Corinthians 6 talks about Christians are going to be judged, are going to judge angels, um, many other passages, 2 Timothy 2 says that, that we will reign with him if we endure, uh, Revelations 2 and 20 described pictures of, of Christians ruling and reigning.
And so, It's not in one or two places. This is really scattered throughout scriptures that that there's this really high calling this place that this is going to, which includes, um, an elevation of people who have embraced his calling to a very high position. It's not something that even I think it's a lot of airtime, even in religious circles or church, but it is there and it is a big part of the story.
Now, as I've kind of hinted at in previous episodes, This is something that maybe isn't, uh, wasn't embraced as a plan by every member of that spiritual realm, every spiritual being within that spiritual realm. And so, there you have these, these, these hints and these events or incidents in the scriptures where spiritual beings seem to be undermining that plan.
And, you have to read between the lines a little bit, I think, to piece together a narrative. But, What seems to be the case, judging from overall, is that there's some element of rebellion, jealousy, or resentment, or some combination of those things, on behalf of those beings that, why would humans get to occupy this high place?
Do they deserve it? And, you know, as a human, you know, on our behalf, I would say You know, I, I kind of get that question. Like, it's very easy to look at us and be like, Yeah, there's some good things. And then there's some absolutely terrible and scary and traumatic things that I can see why someone would say we are not qualified, we're disqualified.
And so, if you locate this as an actual theme and even a major theme in the scripture, it actually begins to change the way you look. I would say substantially at the whole story because Then a big conflict at the middle of the, at the middle of the story is not, Hey, aren't people bad? And how can we be less bad?
And how can someone fix our badness? I mean, that's actually there. I'm not even saying it's not there. It is there. But not, perhaps not at the center, perhaps closer to the center is, Wait, is this a, Is this really a good idea that people be in charge of anything? Is this a good idea that, that, is God crazy?
That he would have this very, very high view and ambition of people to actually elevate us up. And so this is actually the very interesting counterpoint to what I was describing last episode where there's this incredibly high accountability, um, by God for his people, for people who have embraced this vocation and have said, yeah, this is who we want to be.
There's a extremely high accountability. But on the other side of that makes sense. Because there would have to be an incredibly high accountability if the goal is I want to sit you on a throne where you rule in the same way that I, the Most High, rule. That's, that's a very interesting, maybe controversial, way of looking at it.
And I can see why in the spiritual realm. That would be a controversial, debatable plan. I can see why, if I'm a very powerful spiritual being, I might say, Hold on, what, what, what kind of plan is this? Do you even see the people that you're saying this about? Do you see that? And so if you place that at the center of the story, of the narrative, of the plot, you can see why there would be a huge tension, a huge conflict, a huge wrestling match.
It's not just, um, spiritual beings just I want to be in charge. I mean, it could be that, but it could, this could be the reason why, uh, there's a, there's an actual disagreement over the place of people and, and it, it's a, it's a, it's a pretty good debate. Like even just as a person, if you take away the scriptures, take away the spiritual side and you just say, well, what do you think of people?
If you ask people that question, you're going to get very different answers from very positive, very negative, right? And in fact, you might get different answers for the same person on two different days. I can, I can attest to that. Like you asked me at one phase of my life, what I think of people, and I might give you one answer.
Ask me another time when I'm feeling some kind of way and I might give you a very, very different answer. And you can see, you can, you can just see both possibilities as different as they are as, as arguable, as debatable, as, as, as a potential answer for that question. So, anyway, throughout the scriptures, because of that, if you, if that narrative makes sense, then it does make sense of a lot of things you see in the scriptures where there is this, this intense, um, conflict, not just human conflicts with wars, although it's definitely there, um, and not just conflicts like, oh, can people be better, can we be more morally perfect, can we be more upstanding and listen better, although that's there too, but there's this extra element of conflict of.
of spiritual battle, so to speak. And so, uh, you know, in Genesis three, we mentioned this, the serpent gets cursed and, uh, the woman is told he's going to, the serpent is going to, um, bite your heel and you are going to crush his head with your heel. And that's looked at as a prophecy of, of what's to come about.
And of course you could look at that just as about snakes and humans, and we don't really like each other very much. And that could be true, but. As you keep reading the scripture, it kind of, you kind of keep getting these hints dropped that like, no, no, no, that's actually about spiritual, uh, conflict and spiritual battle.
And these spiritual beings are going to continue to work against you and work against God's plan to elevate you, to lift you up to where you want to be. And God wants you to be, rightfully so. Um, but eventually you're going, you're going to win. Like this thing is gonna happen one way or another and so in Luke 10 Jesus disciples He's sent out preaching and healing and all this stuff and they return and they've they feel like they've seen all these victories And Jesus says that I've seen Satan fall like lightning from heaven And then he says I've given you authority to trample on snakes And scorpions and so those two thoughts could be completely disconnected Discontiguous, you know, like it could be about spiritual battle and Satan and then suddenly he just wants to talk about snakes But not likely, you know, that's not really what seems like it's going on there It feels like those two thoughts are very related and he's saying, you know Yeah, you're spiritual.
You're experiencing these spiritual victories because I have given you authority over the serpent that's humans stepping on the head of the servant serpent and Jesus says I saw Satan fall like lightning and And you could think, well, what is that past tense? Uh, is it right then, you know, right with those events, present tense?
There's, there's passages later where it sounds like it's something that's gonna happen in the future. I think all of those are actually very plausible interpretations and may all be true at the same time. But the point is, this passage is, is speaking to that spiritual conflict. In Romans 16, Paul closes up the letter.
He says, The God of peace will, will soon, I'm confident the God of peace will soon crush, uh, Crush Satan under your feet. Let me see exactly what he says. I want to get that quote right. So, this is another passage along the same lines, but instead of Jesus speaking, it's Paul speaking. And he's writing to Christians and Romans.
He's not writing it to any one individual, but he's writing it to them as a whole. So, he says, The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. And so that's a similar passage. And these are not, um, these are not the only ones. Later you have in Revelation 12, this passage, uh, that sounds like it's, it's, the way it's written sounds like it's into the future.
It could be talking about current events as well. But this is Revelation 12. The war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels also fought, but he could not prevail. And there was no place for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was thrown out.
So you, you have this dragon imagery again, sort of like the tiny and we were talking about last time, the ancient serpent. So there's the serpent language who is called the devil and Satan. So here you have all four terminologies combined into one entity, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth and the angels with them.
And then I heard a loud voice in heaven say the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God. And the authority of his Messiah have now come, because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown out, the one who accuses them before our God day and night. They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives in the face of death.
And so, Once more, an image of a victory over this figure, this serpent, devil, satan, dragon figure. Uh, and then I, it's, it's really interesting how he's described the accuser of our brothers. Now the word Satan, the Satan means the accuser, the adversary. It's sort of like somebody who's lined up to tear you down and say why you don't deserve X, Y, or Z.
Uh, the accuser of our brothers who accuses them before our god day and night. And so there's this, this figure as it's described here, that is, that's his, that's his job. That's his role, or at least that's the role he's playing is to, to argue against us, to argue for our frailty, our weakness, our sin, our unworthiness.
And here he's experiencing judgment and defeat, you know, on behalf of God by these warriors who are fighting on behalf of God. And so. So, that speaks to that narrative I was talking about earlier where there is this plan, there is this idea for people to be, humans to be elevated, to rule, to be part of the royal priesthood, the royal council, and the spiritual beings are not all on board with this.
This is controversial and some are radically opposed. And so they're very anti human. They're very anti human. So anything that God told them to do, uh, or wants for them to do this, these characters, these entities are going to be against that. If God said, go be my imagers, these, these, uh, individuals won't want that.
If, if it's, Hey, rule well, they won't want that. If, if, if God wants us to bring healing and life, they'll want the work for the opposite of that. The, the antithesis of nourishing and bringing healing and life. If God wants us to go multiply and fill the earth, they will want the opposite of that. They want to work against that, work against anything that supports that.
So you get this, this picture, if you look at the, the whole thing and, uh, it's, it's intense because there's a real conflict. But the conflict of that, the, the, sorry, the context of that conflict is the incredibly high calling and position that God wants us to have, which does come along with a, uh, quite a high accountability.
Now, the, the, uh, another interesting thing or two about this is, well, one, it's, it's certain it's going to come about, it's going to happen. And that's good news. The other thing is that it is going to require and include some suffering. So I've read a couple passages from Isaiah. Uh, the one I didn't read that I want to read an excerpt from is Isaiah 52 and 53.
This one's well known within Christian circles for sure. And again, this is Isaiah. It's written, written many hundreds of years before Jesus. Um, people who don't believe in Jesus, but believe in these scriptures will say this is about the Israel, you know, the people of Israel as a whole, which I think is true.
They might say it's about a subset of faithful Israel. I think that's also true. Um, I would go a step further and say, well, yes, and I think that that faithful subset of Israel is also personified in one person, the person of Jesus. So it says, see, my servant will act wisely. He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted.
Just as many were appalled at you. His appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man and his form did not resemble a human being. So he was sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of him. For they will see what had not been told them, and they will understand what they had not heard.
I'm going to skip to verse two. He didn't have any impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from. He was despised and we, we did not value him, yet he himself bore our sicknesses and carried our pains.
But we in turn, regarded him, stricken, struck, struck down by God and afflicted, but he was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. And I read that as an excerpt. That's Isaiah 52 and 53 apportion. This is part, uh, once again of that profile of servant songs describing this, this, this servant of Israel, which it could be the whole people, it could be a faithful subset or it could be an individual.
to say, and again, I think this is fulfilled in Jesus, but, but it also holds out a calling for anybody who would embrace that vocation that Jesus did embrace and actually lived out perfectly. Um, there's intimacy with God as part of being that servant, there's bringing life and nourishment. And here we see part of that calling is to suffer.
On behalf of the people whom life and healing is being brought to, that that's part of the deal. You get another passage that I think speaks to the same reality in Romans 8 and it's written specifically to and about Christians saying that, um, we, we groan inwardly waiting for the redemption of heaven and earth.
Just as, as the Father redeemed and raised Jesus, the first fruits, the same thing is to happen with the rest of humanity and with the rest of creation, um, all who will embrace it. Um, but until then, creation itself is groaning and we groan with it and we don't even always know what to pray, but we, we wrestle and we groan.
In this in between this really uncomfortable in between time. And I think you get that same sense of, of wrestling, of suffering of representative suffering in that passage. And once again, I want to, I want to go back to what we were talking about last episode. We were talking about how our typical way of looking at things is, Hey, what are the rules?
What are the playground rules? If someone did something bad to me, uh, what's the minimum. A maximum bad I can do to them and still be okay and be fair and be just, um, or you know, what's the minimum obligation I have to do and not be out of line or illegal or people are going to, you know, uh, say that I'm doing what's wrong.
This calling is just of a different nature than that. It's a different frame and lens. It isn't asking what's the minimum I need to do. It isn't asking, asking what's the maximum, you know, harmful thing I can do and still be okay. This is saying, I'm going to take on personally, whatever suffering is coming my way, for me to fulfill that role, that calling, that vocation of being a representative, a part of the royal priesthood, a priest to the people, intervening, advocating, looking for what space do I need to occupy to To represent God's goodness to these humans and to connect these humans to the good God.
It's a different question with different outcomes. It's a different way of finding our identity. It's a different way of orienting our thoughts, our emotions, our aims, our life. And I'm gonna tell you, it's a whole A lot more meaningful than finding my identity in my, whatever, nationality, politics, gender identity, sexual expression, all the things that we want to do.
It's bigger than hobbies,
my, my career. It's bigger than I think any other alternative or substitute that we could put in here. It's the highest possible calling I can imagine. It comes with a, it comes with suffering, it comes with accountability, but it also comes with, with intimacy and being an agent of, of healing and life bringing, I think this is what Jesus was walking with through the fields and, and, and hills and valleys of Galilee, of Judea and Samaria as he reflected on the.
Wild flowers that were beautiful and had what they needed, the birds of the air whom God saw and knew it was the same calling that he walked right into the Sanhedrin who he knew had it out for him, answered their questions, stood tall, didn't waver, didn't budge, didn't run, who faced down the Roman authorities, who faced down Pilate and didn't budge on what truth was and what Pilate was doing in his attempt to evade accountability.
He didn't run. He did not have an opinion about the people, his people, the people of Israel, Judea, Samaria, and their take on whether they need to embrace or resist Rome. He didn't avoid it. He said what he thought, and then he lived it out and acted it out. He was at home in his body and all these scenarios, his entire life was integrated.
He didn't look around him and say, well, I don't know, I'm just not going to think about that and I'm just going to withdraw into private spirituality and religion and attend temple and, uh, believe the Bible. I don't think he even did that.
He really thought this through. He knew who he was. He knew what his calling was. I think that is available and accessible to everyone. Me and to you.
It's a completely different way of looking at things. I'm gonna do one more episode this season and I wanna talk about the, these cultural trends, uh, that we spent the first several episodes talking about. Where are they going? I think it's very interesting. I I, I don't think that any one person or even one group is necessarily consciously directing with an agenda.
But I do think that we, as a, as a, as a culture at least, as a subset of humanity, are being led down a road that is, uh, really scary, very weird, um, and is the antithesis of what you've been, what we have been talking about in these two episodes. So, I'm gonna give you that for food for thought, um, from the next episode.
And, uh, so please join me that time, but until then, see you next time.