New Thoughts (2/27/04-2/29/04)
Three times, in verse 35, we come upon the Greek word epi twice as part of a compound word, and once by itself. When the Holy Spirit comes, it is epeleusetai, to come epi, towards, upon. This is followed immediately by epi once more. This indicates a resting after the motion. When the two are combined, we have the sense that the Holy Spirit will move to a place, will touch upon the surface, will physically contact Mary. But, it is more than this. He will come to rest upon that place. Gabriel immediately follows upon this with a parallel explanation of what is to happen, and again, the word is epi. God's power will overshadow her, he says, His power will episkiasei, envelop her as in a haze.
There is much to see in this. One thing that comes to mind this morning is that Mary did not simply wake up the next morning and discover herself pregnant. This was not some imperceptible spirit-touch. This was a very visible manifestation. Consider the parallel to the imparting of the Holy Spirit in Acts. There, when He came, it was as if tongues of fire rested upon each one of them (Ac 2:3). Not surprisingly, there is another epi in that place. The flaming presence sat upon them, came to rest upon their heads, as it were. Imagine, then, how much more sensational an impression it must have made on Mary when that same fiery, radiant presence wholly engulfed her! I have in my mind an image, made familiar in cartoon and other such media, of one standing arms upstretched as atoms of light race in arcs all about him. In such images, the scene is ever one of transformation. When the racing lights fade away once more, we find the one they have enclosed has become something completely new. It is like a cocoon, but a cocoon at hyper speed.
I get the impression that Mary's experience was very much like this, except perhaps for the racing of the light. Again, the idea of rest is so prevalent in Gabriel's words that I think we dare not lose sight of it. For Mary, it was less the racing of tiny lights, and more the deep fog of God's presence. She was enveloped, wholly submerged, if you will, in the Shekinah glory of God! Now that is highly favored! Even Moses could not lay claim to such a blessing.
Yet, even so wholly enveloped in God, she is not wholly filled with Him. He remains upon the surface, enclosing, but not occupying, touching, but not possessing. Possession is the business of demons. Certainly, it is within God's power to so possess those He would use, but it is not in His nature, not in His essence, to so abuse the liberty of His children. If it were, there would have been no fall, and no redemption made necessary. If it were, He would not be glorious, nor His glory known. Possession displays power, but it displays power without glory, power abused and unjust. When God's power is at work, it is seen to be working in a righteous and just manner, chosen by the one upon which He sovereignly moves, as paradoxical as that may seem, and His glory is manifest in His use of power. Notice that, while the events are declared with every bit as much certainty as every declaration Gabriel makes - there is no question that it will happen as God has said, still, no action is taken until Mary has assented to the plan.
As I say, God, in this action, does not fill Mary, does not intrude upon her inner woman. Yet, it occurs to me that one could almost say that as He was resting upon her skin, she was wholly within Him. At every point, her perimeter, her skin, was touched by the very present Holy Spirit! Can you even begin to imagine that? Moses longed to see God's face. Even having seen only His retreating form, he came down from the mountain with such a glow on his face that the people were afraid to look at him. Mary, I can imagine, must have glowed like that for days! What did she do in that time? Did she hide out in her room, refusing to be seen, until the glow had faded? Did her parents see the afterglow, and start asking questions? Or, did God move more subtly upon her, such that at His departure no trace or evidence of His visitation remained? Oh! I find that thought impossible! No! When one has been in close, intimate contact with God, there is no possibility that He would leave no evidence of His presence! Like the fictional cocoon of light, when the Light of His presence was gone, still there would be such profound change upon Mary that none could fail to take note. In a moment, she had become so much more than a young child. So much more.
If I were to seek out a personal application from this line of thought, it must be this: God very often works in rest. We are forever seeking to get busy doing God's work. I certainly get that way. Were I to add up the hours I spend in matters concerning God and church, I suspect it might border on equality with the time I spend in my employment. I say this not to boast in any way, but simply to say there is this drive within me, within each one of us, I suspect, to be doing something for God. This is not a bad thing, certainly. We are called to go and make disciples. We are called to action. What we miss, I suspect is that much of the going, much of the action, actually involves coming to rest. We cannot make disciples by flying into a person's life, delivering a quick salvation message, and flying on to the next mission. It won't work. It isn't discipling. Jesus did not simply hit the apostles with His Spirit and rush off to the next task. He stayed with them for years in the course of His earthly ministry. He stayed with them for life, in all truth, other than the brief absence required by His death. We are called to be like Him, not like the manic over-achiever of modern life. We are called to take time with those we would make disciples. We are called to do, but to do according to the plan and the model of God Incarnate. Ever active for the kingdom, we can perhaps achieve more by resting with Him, than by rushing about as our own spirit leads.
Business is, as often as not, dead works. It's us trying to show God how good we're doing, how useful we are to His kingdom. But, in our business, we are forever sheep wandering out of the fold, going off after our ideas and hoping God will keep up with us. And, all the while, He is at the gate of the sheepfold calling out to us, drawing us back to His pasture, gently curbing our exuberance and saying, 'abide in Me.'
That phrase, 'abide in Me,' brings me to mind of Mary's experience once more. 'Come be enveloped in Me, wrapped up in My presence.' What a wonderful offer! What greater experience could one ask for in this life?
Lord, I hear Your offer this morning, Your desire. You call out to me to come and be wrapped up in You, to be so wholly enclothed by You that no bit of the flesh remains exposed, no vestige of the old man remains to be seen. You call me to rest in You, even as I contemplate this venture of teaching once more. You must teach me how to work in resting, how to rest in working, for it eludes me. I know my pace has been rather frantic of late, as though some sense of time running out were upon me. It seems I am in a rush to do so much, and there always seems so little time in which to do it all. Help me to stop, Lord, and consider why I feel this way, why I am so driven of late. Help me to know, Holy One, where I have stepped outside the fold of Your purpose, where I have been doing for the sake of doing.
I sense in this lesson You have been giving me today - at least in part - a direction for the teaching You have called me to. It is assuredly to be a matter of discipling, not imparting. Help me, Lord, to fulfill this task You have given me in the way You would have it done. Help me to steer clear of all thought of displaying my own abilities, to reject any temptation to preach my own opinions. Lord! You know how easy it would be for me to slip into that, so I beg Your enclosing protection upon me, I will need Your enveloping presence upon and within me, that none of the flesh of Jeff will pollute the pure work You lay upon me.
Let it be, Lord, truly a work of discipling, of training up Your children to prepare the meals You have given them in Your Holy Word. Help me to be a teacher of how to, not simply an expositor of what I have done. It seems beyond me, Lord, all that is happening at present. Yet, I will cling to the promise You gave Mary, the assurance that You established with her: nothing will be impossible in Your presence. Help me to remain with You in all that I do, that Your possibility may have its way in every moment.
I think it abundantly clear that verse 37 is the key verse of this passage. It is the simple, condensed, concise answer to Mary's how. "Nothing will be impossible with God." What wonderful news for us! Yet, what an odd phrasing of that news. I would have expected something more like, "nothing is impossible for God," but there are two key differences there. It is not that nothing is impossible, it's that nothing will be. It is not for God that the claim is made, it is with God. The parallel of Jesus' own words in Matthew 19:26 - "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible," carries that same wording, although brought into the present tense. For now, I'm going to set aside the curiosity of tenses, and focus on that with. This, I think, is a key matter for us to gain hold of. I'm going to do something unusual for me, and try and pin this down syntactically because I think it is critical to understand, given that with, just who nothing is impossible for. So…
In the interlinear, the verse parses like this: "For nothing shall be impossible with God nothing." The first 'nothing' of this sentence is, as was pointed out in the word study section, a denial that the verb of this sentence applies in any way shape or form to the subject. The second nothing, which disappears in translation, is pan reema: all utterances, every matter. So, try it this way: "For in every matter, impossibility will not apply with God." Now, I think, the subject (syntactically speaking) in this verse becomes a little more clearly seen. But, I want to be certain. So here is the sentence diagramed:
- For - subordinating, causal conjunction
- This sentence, then, is connected in thought to what preceded, and stands as the cause for the preceding idea.
- Nothing - negative particle
- This word modifies the coming verb, shades the meaning of that verb, as denying its applicability.
- Shall be impossible - 3rd person singular future tense, active voice, indicative mood verb
- By 3rd person, this identifies to the 'actor' in this declaration as being neither the speaker (Gabriel), nor the one spoken to (Mary), but as some other who is being spoken about (God). By singular, it identifies that there is only one to whom this is being applied. By future tense, several shades of meaning may be implied, but I think in this present situation, it reflects gnomic future, the idea that it can happen whenever time and circumstances are right. By active voice, the action is declared as done by the subject, or it may (causative active) indicate the subject as the ultimate source of the action. By indicative mood, this is declared a certainty.
- With - genitive preposition
- This describes the relationship between nouns. We'll come back to this.
- God - masculine singular genitive noun
- This is in the genitive case, because it is indicating the object of the preceding preposition. It may or may not eliminate Him as the subject.
- Everything. - two words, first: neuter singular nominative adjective, second: neuter singular nominative noun.
- The nominative case applies to both of these words. It identifies the noun as being the subject.
So, the actual subject of this message is 'every matter.' Combining this with the active voice of the verb, however, makes little to no sense to me. It leaves every matter as being the one performing the impossibility, doesn't it? I think we must understand everything as being the object, then, for clearly the thing cannot perform its own impossibility. It is the thing which is declared not impossible, but it cannot be the doer. In truth, it still feels to me as though the true subject, the actor in this sentence is not present in the sentence. I think we can say, with sound reason, that in this case, the active voice of the verb is a causal active voice. God is declared the ultimate source of the action, and He is declared so with certainty. Looking back at the tense of the verb, there is that idea of it being applicable whenever the time and circumstances are right. In that sense, I think 'with God,' declares when that will be.
I know I've been really belaboring this effort, but I do so with reason. There is something in the phrasing here that appears right to me, but before I accept it as the real meaning, I want to be certain that the meaning holds with the construction of the sentence. At this point, I think it does. So, here is the point I reach: we have been told Who is the ultimate source of the action, and we have been shown that only when He is the ultimate source of the action, does the truth of what is said here apply. What goes unsaid in the verse is who the immediate source of the action is. If I may, let me put the verse this way, "So long as the thing is done with God, it will not be impossible to do." Again, notice that just who it is who does this thing with God is not stated outright.
Bearing in mind that we are looking at a sentence which is the subordinating cause of what was said before, we must look to the prior sentence to find the immediate subject, and there I believe we find the subject is Elizabeth. She conceived in spite of apparent barrenness. Why? Because she was with God, she was acting in concert with God, not on her own. She was in accord with God, not in opposition. Because of this, the impossible thing of conceiving in barrenness and old age was no longer impossible. Impossibility no longer applied to the situation because God the situation was with God.
Does this add power to the verse? To me, it means so much more than it does to understand that for God there is no impossibility. That is true, and that is wonderful, but it does not necessarily help me in my present situation. Knowing God is good is one thing. Knowing God is good to me is quite another. Knowing that nothing is impossible for God to perform is one thing. Knowing that nothing is impossible for me to perform, so long as I am with God in so doing, is quite another thing! There is a key factor that I dare not lose sight of, here. There is a qualifier, much as there is a qualifier on the promise that our every prayer will be answered. In essence, it is the same qualifier in both cases. When our prayers are with God, in accord with His plans and purposes, wholly informed and prefaced upon His will, then we can be assured our prayers are heard and answered in the courts of heaven. When our actions are taken in accord with God's purpose, when our efforts are dedicated to doing what He has commanded us to do, we can be assured that the task before us will not prove impossible to accomplish.
God will undoubtedly ask of each one of us tasks which strike the mortal mind as impossible. They will often, if not always, seem impossible to us, beyond our capabilities and strength. This is precisely because the are beyond our capabilities and strength. If we attempt to fulfill His commands, but in our own way, they will undoubtedly prove to be beyond our capability and strength. But, if we accept not only His command, but His direction, if we remain with God not only in accepting the command, but in performing what is commanded, then and only then we will find that indeed, what seemed impossible was possible indeed.
Once again, I find the contrast between Zacharias and Mary most profound. Both were given the command to do the impossible. For Zacharias, the impossibility lay in his age, and the state of his wife. How was he to bear a child on his own, for clearly Elizabeth could not contribute. They'd been trying for decades to no avail. It was impossible! For Mary, it was the simple lack of any partner which presented an impossibility. Yet, in both cases, it was a command to bear a child, and in both cases, it was a command to pretty much do it single-handedly, in defiance of the natural order. The reactions, however, were totally different. For Zacharias, it was, "The thing is impossible! How can I believe this is God's command?" For Mary, it was "The thing seems impossible. How shall it be made possible to me?" In this, she stays firmly within the bounds of the acceptable how. It would be easy to slip over the line from 'how shall it be possible,' to 'how can I?' That latter how is the voice of one who is still seeking to usurp God's place. It is still setting up the questioner as somehow higher and wiser than the One who commands action. Don't You know, God, that this is not possible for me to do? Don't You see the absurdity of what You require of me?
God's answer is "Yes, of course I do. I hope that you, too, can see the impossibility of this matter for you. You need to learn, my child, that apart from Me everything is an impossibility for you. Your power, your wit, they are no match for the simplest of tasks when you walk away from Me. But, when you are with Me, when you are centered in My will, when you stop trying to be better than Me, and simply allow Me to work with, in, and through you, then there is nothing that will be impossible." The key to the whole matter is who we leave manning the controls. Whenever we take them into our own hands, we make the matter impossible. Whenever we simply enter into God's rest, and allow Him to work in that resting, it shall be done, even as He has said.
Notice that Mary was not given anything to do in this matter of conception, other than to submit to God's will. There was no great labor that she must go forth and do to prove herself worthy. There was no Herculean feat she was called upon to perform. No. It was simply a matter of resting in His presence, allowing His presence to rest upon her. How I need to learn from this! How often am I in a rush to run off and do, when all God is asking is that I abide in His presence a while? What shall be impossible to us, His children, when we learn to do just that - abide in His presence awhile, and allow Him to work His impossibility in us!
One other aspect I think we must take away from this: Whenever we feel that 'how can I' rising up in us, we need to run back to the lesson of this verse. The only way we can is with God, and it is key to our blessing that whatever we do, we do in this fashion - wholeheartedly, unswervingly with God. This is the antidote for every doubt that besets us. Get with God, rest in that place where He is. Keep your eye on the cloud of His glory, and unless that cloud says, 'Go,' you stay right where you are. But, when the command is 'Go,' don't hesitate even a moment. Keep yourself right there in His midst, and all things will be possible!
This brings us face to face with one of Satan's favorite weapons: doubt. He knows better than we that God is true, His Word is Truth. He knows better than we that God is omnipotent and His Word is never void. He cannot change God's Word, so he attacks, instead, the ears to which the Word is sent. His first work in that attack is to spread seeds of doubt, to convince us that we didn't hear correctly. In the garden, he attacked Eve by questioning if she had heard the God's prohibition correctly, "He didn't really say that, did He?" In the desert, His attack on Jesus begins with the same tactic. "He didn't really declare You His Son, did He?" (Mt 4:3).
Notice that he doesn't come out and claim that Jesus is not the Messiah, he knows that Jesus is, as do his underlings: "We know who You are, You are God's Holy One" (Mk 1:24). No, instead of attacking Truth head on, he seeks to divert the truth. "If You are really the Son of God, You'll be able to do this thing to convince me." His hope was to put just enough doubt into the mind of Christ to cause Him to step away from God's plan for just the briefest moment. All things will be possible with God, near God, by His side, centered in His will. If once Satan can plant sufficient doubt in us to draw us away from that center, he can then take further advantage. The lion ever seeks to separate its prey from the protection of the pack. Satan, we know, roves about like a hungry lion, ever seeking a weak spot to take advantage of. The protection of the pack for us is our nearness to God, our keeping in His ways, our abiding in Him as our sword and shield, our strong tower.
What Satan sought to undermine, the disciples came to understand as clear and obvious truth. Nathanael recognized it early on, although Peter is given the credit as the first to declare it. When first he encountered Jesus, Jesus hailed him as a true and guileless Jew, one whose thoughts and prayers were focused upon God's kingdom, and His Messiah. Hearing the greeting, with its surprise of Jesus knowing his name, his reaction is immediate: "You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!" (Jn 1:34). I have heard it said that Nathanael, being presented as he is, was quite probably deep in prayerful meditation upon just such things when Jesus' greeting interrupted his reverie. Whether his recognition of Jesus was truly recognition, or the reaction of one coming away from deep thought is hard to say. Still, the recognition is there.
With Jesus' passing, the apostles suffered their own period of doubts. The enemy was under attack in his very kingdom, as the King came to free the prisoners he had taken. He chose to retaliate by a strong attack upon the King's chosen ambassadors. He did his utmost to plant seeds of doubt in those three days, and succeeded quite well. But, not well enough. The King, having accomplished His purpose in the camps of the enemy, returned to His own in victory. Knowing full well from His own experience how dangerous was this weapon of doubt, He went to His ambassadors and provided them with the unshakable assurance of seeing with their own eyes their risen Savior. They were given to touch His wounds, they who had seen those wounds inflicted. They had had hours to memorize where the spikes had penetrated the hands of their hope. Now, those very piercings would serve to establish hope once and for all. They would serve to completely obliterate the enemies greatest weapon. Doubt was abolished by the power of experience.
Consider John's words in opening and closing his own record of life with Jesus. "I have seen Him, and I have testified that He is the Son of God" (Jn 1:49). As a good Jew, John knew the penalty due a false witness, and was not about to put himself in that danger. He testified to this because he knew beyond all possibility of doubt that what he claimed on Jesus' behalf was Truth. Approaching the end of his gospel, he writes this: "I have written what I have written here so that you, too, can believe beyond all doubt that Jesus truly is [not was] the Messiah, the real Son of the real God. And, by belief in this, you, too, may have life in His name" (Jn 20:31). Notice that John, nor any other of the apostles, for that matter, did not ask for blind faith from his readers, his listeners. He laid out the facts for them, invited them to investigate and know the truth of them, and thereby be convinced of the truth. Blind faith remains subject to every assault of doubt. It is when faith is established on irrefutable fact that faith will be a strong foundation, an unassailable defense against the first and favored attack of the enemy.
It is this sort of faith that will allow us to hold to the truth that when God says it's possible, it truly is possible. There's an adage in church circles that says what God calls you to do, He will equip you to do. There have been times when I've wondered whether this was an accurate statement. For the most part, I think it is. But, we must keep our eyes on the caveat there. It holds true insofar as it truly is what God called you to do, and not your own desires seeking His approval after the fact. It's a matter of keeping your eye on the cloud of His presence.
For me, considering this new round of teaching I'm expecting to embark upon, this is an important consideration. Have I truly heard Him in moving out in this direction, or have I merely been hoping to stroke my own pride and desire? Looking at the time commitment, yet another night when there will be a crunch between work and church, yet more hours needed for preparation, etc, it feels like an impossibility, like something's got to give. But, if my ears have truly been hearing the command of my Master, and not seeking to promote my own plan in His eyes, then this impossibility will be possible, for He will be with me in the work.
Lord, I believe I have heard You on this, though it is always hard to discern that with certainty when Your will and my desire are so closely aligned. Today will mark the first real announcement of this upcoming study. If I have stepped away from Your guidance in pursuing this, then squash it before it begins! I would not be outside Your camp claiming to work for You. Father, I have also sensed that this may be a moving away from other things in which I have been involved for many years. If that need be, I pray You give me the grace and the sense to pull out, in spite of the joy I take in that work. If You are gone from it, the joy is gone from it. If this is a season of change, and not simply of growth and expansion, so be it. My heart is to do Your will, solely Your will, to the best of my ability. I need to be certain, though. I count upon You to make me so. Speak to me most clearly, my Father, if there are ministries I need to let go of, even for a time, and then give me the strength of grace to comply. In the meantime, I will cling to the promise of this passage. So long as I remain near You, there is nothing that shall be impossible.
