What is the TaNaK? ANd Why Does It Matter?

Mike Leake

I’ll confess that when my eyes light upon the word Tanak my mind immediately thinks of that horrible moment in 1994 when my then favorite wrestler, Tatanka, turned on all that was right and good to join up with Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Corporation. But then I realize a few letters are missing and Tanak must be pointing to something else.

TaNaK is actually and acronym for the names of the three sections of the Hebrew Bible: Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim. Torah is the first 5 books, Nevi’im means prophets, and Ketuvim stands for the writings. But you might be a bit shocked at what goes where.

The Nevi’im consists of the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings), the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel), and the Twelve Minor Prophets.

The Ketuvim are divided into the three poetry books (Psalms, Proverbs, Job), the five Megillot (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther), and then the other books (Daniel, Ezra/Nehemiah, Chronicles).

This means that the Hebrew Bible closes with Chronicles and not Malachi. 

Why does that matter?

Don’t hear me wrongly, here. I think you can keep your Bible in it’s current English order and be completely fine in interpreting the Scriptures. Though, I think sometimes you might be tempted to make a few points that probably aren’t consistent with the original intention. Nevertheless, I’m not attempting to say you are going to totally misread your Bible if you don’t have it in it’s original order.

But I do think it would be incredibly helpful for our understanding of the biblical storyline to preserve it’s original order—the order in which Jesus would have compiled the Old Testament. I say this because the books are united in such a way to tell a beautiful story.

I’ve often heard it said that Malachi ends with the promise of an Elijah to come and then we have about 400 years of silence. It leaves the idea that God is so utterly ticked off with the Jews that he isn’t going to talk to them for a few hundred years. But I think it’s original order might tell a little bit different story.

How in the world would Chronicles make for a better ending? That’s the part we usually skip over because it just sounds like what we’ve read in Samuel and Kings. This is the book with the nine chapters of genealogy. Not many preachers sign up for doing a series on Chronicles. But it actually is telling a story which perfectly sets the stage for a newborn King.

Chronicles tells the story of the Israelites from Adam to the exile. But the whole story points to a king to sit on the Davidic throne. The original audience likely would have thought that the return from exile and rebuilding of the temple meant that all was right in the world. But the ending of Chronicles would give a bit of a pause—yet also hope. Dempster explains:

Cyrus gives the command to build the temple in Jerusalem—the Davidic house (the temple) is resurrected. The Tanakah orients its readers to the future. As such the Story is unfinished. The long, dark night of exile awaits a sequel—the dawning of a new light that will radiate to the ends of the earth. (Dempster, 227)

Chronicles, just like Malachi, closes out the Old Testament with hope for the future. Regardless of how you order the Old Testament the key is that it is left unfulfilled until Christ comes. But I think the storyline is better preserved by keeping your Old Testament in the original order.

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If you want more information on this Dominion and Dynasty by Stephen Dempster is the best treatment I’ve read, though it’s a little technical. For a more accessible explanation consider this from the Bible Project.

Photo source: here  (It’s truly amazing how non-PC the WWF was in the late 80s and early 90s).

How Jesus in the Garden Helped My Anxiety

Mike Leake

I’m hesitant to publish this next sentence or two. For the longest time I would be rattled to my core any time I heard of a fellow pastor committing suicide. I think what rattled me was fear that I’d be next. I hate typing those sentences because I know what such a confession of those dark moments does to those who love you. It’s scary to those who love you. And I know I’m loved.

But I think I can say with a great deal of confidence that the Lord has provided substantial healing to my heart and mind over this past year. On occasion I’ll still have rumblings of fear, worry and anxiety. But what I have now is a battle plan for engaging those fears. And it all starts with seeing Christ in the Garden.

There was a downward and dark spiral that would happen in my mind when I’d be overcome with one of these emotions. It would often start with a particular event (or a perceived event) that would create anxiety within my heart. And then fear and worry would attach themselves and then things would get very dark. My affections would grow numb and I’d be swallowed up by fear and feeling trapped and helpless and inadequate and a bunch of other negative voices would throw darts at me.

Then a twisted Christian hedonism would start talking to me. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” What kind of witness am I being? I’m not pleasing God in my emotions. Someone who so passionately believes in the centrality of the gospel shouldn’t be so fearful. Buck up! Stop fearing! Stop being anxious! Jesus said to not fear, and you are fearing! He has given you everything for life and godliness, press into that and your feelings of anxiety will subside.

The fear got worse. And now it had a new companion, shame.

Jesus in the Garden stopped the cycle.

Over there in the distance is a man weeping in a garden. He looks weary. Maybe the most weary I’ve ever seen a man. He’s trembling. His inner turmoil is creeping through cracks in his forehead, falling like drops of blood onto the rocks. There is nothing calm about this man.

If you know his story then you know the reason for his sorrow. He’s about to face death, but not just any death. This is a sacrificial death. It’s the type were all your dreams are set ablaze on the altar of somebody else’s dreams. He’ll be crushed so somebody else doesn’t have to be. And nobody in history has known joy like this man. Nobody has known intimacy with God like this man. There is not one other soul who has been to the heights like he has. He’s giving up more than we could even think possible.

There has to be a brief moment when he simply didn’t want to do it. Otherwise the words, “not my will but your will” mean nothing. James Edwards is correct,

“Jesus’ prayer is not the result of calm absorption into an all-encompassing divine presence, but an intense struggle with the frightful reality of God’s will and what it means fully to submit to him.”

There isn’t “peace beyond all understanding” in this moment. It’s torrential torment. (This section originally published here)

How This Helped

A sight of Christ at the Garden changed my focus. I was no longer focused on my feelings of anxiety, fear, or worry. I learned that the most significant thing in that moment wasn’t what I was feeling but what I did with my feelings.

It’s possible that there were things in my anxiety and such that needed to be repented of. (And there were). But it’s also possible that my own torrential torment was legit. (Many times it was). What I learned to do was table that discussion and begin to focus on the goodness of God and my obedience to God.

I still think Piper is correct that delight is our duty. Dutiful roses aren’t ideal. But sometimes God calls us to an obedience that’s contrary to a large portion of our emotions in that moment. What heals fear, worry, and anxiety isn’t focusing on solving those feelings but instead focusing on the character of God and our response in light of the truth of who He is.

And Jesus in the Garden was my model. If Jesus had emotions that were raging then it helped me to feel a bit more comfortable with my own. I learned that when I am afraid it puts into motion a battle plan to focus on His character and labor to trust. My goal in those moments isn’t to stop feeling anxious or afraid. My goal was to obey the Lord.

Again, I still have times of fear and anxiety and such. But I don’t spiral anymore. My emotions are becoming more consistent with truth. My redemption is found in a Person. And He’s amazing!

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Photo source: here

Read This! 12.05.19

Mike Leake

Announcements at Church

I find this helpful in thinking about why to keep doing announcements. We’ve put a few other rules in place surrounding them as well. One in particular is the 50% rule. If it doesn’t impact over 50% of the congregation it won’t be made from the pulpit (or rarely). We are also trying to move to more story-based and video-medium announcements. Does that impact the family feel, I wonder?

6 Ways to Help Your Kids Love Reading the Bible

I really like the idea in #3 to use arts and crafts. I think something like this would help my daughter engage a bit better. I also think something where my son can take more ownership would be helpful too.

7 Casualties of Being a People Pleaser in Leadership

I believe this is an area where God has really grown me. I’ve seen some of these casualties in previous ministry situations. Being a people pleaser really is an awful way to live your life. You’ll never be enough or do enough, but this helps us see you’re actually doing harm to others as well.

How Jesus Addressed Fear, Worry, and Anxiety

These are very good and helpful. There is one that isn’t included that was foundational in my own healing in this area. I think Jesus modeled for us how to address these monsters. I found such solace in Jesus’ experience in the Garden. It help me see that my battle was for obedience in my anxiety and not to keep from feeling anxious.

7 Reasons Tom Schreiner (Tentatively) Holds to Amillennialism

I’ve had Dr. Schreiner in a few classes. He was historic premillennial in one, amillennial in the other. That’s part of what I love about him. He goes where the text goes. I bounce back and forth myself.

Luke: Evangelist to the Rich

I think articles like this are what Kevin DeYoung does best. I’d never really noticed or thought about Luke’s audience being wealthy. This is a neat profile and I think helpful to have a full picture of how the poor don’t have the market cornered on need for the gospel or provision of the gospel.

Christmas at Block 11

Mike Leake

In preparing to preach on Hebrews 8 this Sunday I stumbled upon a quote that floored me.

“Many Jewish survivor-victims of camps like Auschwitz and Dachau remembered with bitterness that their jailers celebrated Christmas and Easter.” Guthrie, G. (1998). Hebrews (p. 285). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

It’s not like this is the first time I’ve ever thought about the Holocaust or the atrocities at the hands of those who professed Christ. I remember in school being confronted with the horrors of Block 11. But when I read that quote this morning I pictured a beautifully decorated Christmas tree in the guards office, and it was a chilling image.

How in the world could a people celebrate the birth of the God-man, rejoice at His resurrection, and simultaneously put people of his ethnic tribe—the very ones he wept over—into a gas chamber? How can you sing Joy to the World at the same time you are working to eradicate an entire people group?

It’s easy, really. Exalt tradition and sentimentality of a thing over what the thing itself represents. Christmas wasn’t about the advent of the Savior anymore. Neither did the resurrection mean freedom from death and the tyranny of sin. It became a cultural icon instead of living truth.

The same people behind Auschwitz tied a noose around the neck of the pastor who had the audacity to say this of their Christianity:

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Those concerned with expelling Germany of the Jewish people were engaged in their very own culture war. One could even argue that it was a war for Christian culture. Of course, it didn’t look very much like Christ but it certainly was passionate about preserving Christian traditions like Christmas and Easter. In fact many of the churches celebrated what the Nazi party was doing to preserve it’s freedom and heritage. Many took their statement concerning “positive Christianity” to be an affirmation of their Christian values:

“We demand the freedom of all religious confessions in the state, insofar as they do not jeopardize the state’s existence or conflict with the manners and moral sentiments of the Germanic race. The Party as such upholds the point of view of a positive Christianity without tying itself confessionally to any one confession. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit at home and abroad and is convinced that a permanent recovery of our people can only be achieved from within on the basis of the common good before individual good.”

There’s a fallacy out there that has been dubbed reductio ad Hitlerum. It’s an attempt to invalidate someone’s view on the basis of saying the same view was held by Hitler and the Nazi’s. That’s not my intention here. All I’m attempting to do and say is that if we win the war for a Christian culture but in doing so surrender a Christian ethic, then we haven’t won a single thing. We’re just passionately preserving a type of Christianity which can erect gas chambers with Christmas trees.

When we think about a war on Christmas, I think we’d do far better to think about the war of Christmas. The advent of the son of God into history is an act of war against sin and death. That’s where the battle is found. I appreciate the words of Dean Inserra:

Sadly, in the name of tradition and good tidings, a Cultural Christian can have all the comforts of the Christmas season without being confronted with their need to follow the very One whose birth they acknowledge. (Inserra, The Unsaved Christian, 93)

I’m all for being excited that Joy to the World is playing in the mall and subtly proclaiming the One True King. But it’s not this ability to play the song which we are to be engaged in preserving, but the truth of the song. Because you can sing Joy to the World in Block 11, but you can’t consistently be confronted with the rule of this newborn King and celebrate Auschwitz.

A Christian culture without a Christian ethic isn’t truly a Christian culture.

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Photo source: here