I want to think awhile about all those omnis the Bible claims for God and which we believe about Him.  God in Omnipotent – all powerful. God calls Himself “Almighty (Genesis17.1), and asks “Is anything too hard for God?” (Genesis 18.14).  Luke 1.37 tells us that nothing will be impossible with God, and in Revelation 19.6 we are told that “the Lord God Omnipotent reigns.”  God is Omniscient – all knowing.  The eyes of the Lord see everywhere (Proverbs 15.3), He knows all we do (Proverbs 5.21), and knows what we will say before we say it (Matthew 6.8). Nary a sparrow falls to the ground without his knowledge (Matthew 10.29).  God is Omnipresent –He is everywhere at once. The classic meditation upon this omni is Psalm 139, which includes the line “Where can I go from your presence?”  Paul, preaching to the thinkers of Athens says, “In Him we live, and move, and have our being,” (Acts 17.28).  Of course these are only a few verses, chosen to service our conversation here – one finds, while reading the Bible, that the omnis of God are omnipresent.
            I want to assert two truths in this essay. I feel both are necessary for the survival of our faith. I use “faith” in the personal sense, not in the doctrinal one.  I believe that our proper understanding of God’s omnis is necessary for our continued faith that He is, and that He is good.
            The first truth is that only God has these omnis. Only God is all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere-present. Only God.  Satan is not.  He is many things – sophisticated, ruthless, deceitful, cowardly – but he isn’t an omni-anything. Let us not so fear his abilities that we cede victory to him.  Let us not forget his limitations, our power, and the grace of God.  He is only able to do what God allows.  Job begins with Satan making a report of his activity to God personally.  God is the one who mentions Job, and God sets the rules for Satan’s actions towards him.  Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 10.13 that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to bear up – and will provide a means of escape as well. In addition to this Satan is a coward. The moment we resist him he flees (James 4.7). Sin, and its influence are ubiquitous, but he is not. Also, he has already been defeated. His failure and his damnation are faits d’accompli (I Corinthians 15.56-57, Matthew 25.41). He is not just a coward, he is a loser.
            The second truth is a little more difficult to grasp. “Omni” doesn’t mean “without limits” whether necessary, or imposed. There are things God cannot, does not do – places He will not be. It is impossible for God to lie (Titus 1.2). God does not sin, nor does he tempt anyone to (James 1.13).  Hell is a place elsewhere – away from God (Matthew 25.30, 41).
            The question we so often ask, and so rarely answer is “Why?” The answer is so rarely found because we have scant information, we are limited in our ability to understand the information we do have, and we rarely bother to get the information available to us straight – a hat trick of ignorance. Usually we seek to know “why” in order to asses and assign blame – not to increase our own understanding.  We believe in the omnis of God, and so the person we end up blaming is Him – either because He didn’t do to suit us, or because he allowed Satan to act in a way we disapprove of.  When we stand planted firmly in the mire of our own ignorance and blame God we lose faith.
            Perhaps we continue in “the faith.” We still attend, participate, give all the right answers, keep all the “thou shalts”, and all the “thou shalt nots” – but that knowledge that God is good, and that we are safe in Him – that faith - goes. So goes hope.  So goes love.
            What we don’t know is a lot. What we do know is even greater, though, if we are measuring based upon importance.  We know we are ignorant, and we know that God loved us first, and gave Himself for us. This is far from omniscience, but it outweighs everything else.

                       The most violent story in the Bible, and the least violent story in it are laid side by side, connected by the clasp of the phrase, “In the days when the Judges judged.”  The book of Judges ends with a series  of  bloody events directed at women – there is gang rape, dismemberment, genocide, kidnapping, more genocide, and more kidnapping.  I’ll not go into details, you can read them yourself in Judges 19-21 – but not too often, for they cause nightmares.  More jarring in the text than the acts of violence are the acts of heartlessness.  A Levite offers his concubine to a crowd of men to rape, so that they won’t rape him.  When he finds her lying at the doorstep the next morning he says “Get up and let’s go!”  Then the text eerily reports, “there was no answer,” (Judges 19.28).  This is the first in a series of events that will result in the death of tens of thousands, and the snatching of hundreds of young women.  I find the whole ordeal a nauseating (literally) thing to read. But there it is, in the Bible.
            This account is followed by the book of Ruth, which takes place “in the days when the Judges judged” (1.1), and which has no villains, although there is plenty of sorrow, and heartbreak early on. In this book women are protected and cared for, people are kind to each other, goodness is appreciated, prayers are answered, and there is not one, but three happy endings.  It is a wholly satisfying and comforting book to read from the first verse to the last.
            I have never taught the book of Judges in an adult Bible class – as I have been the adult education guy at the congregations I have served, and have conveniently not scheduled myself to teach this book.  I am teaching Ruth this quarter, on Wednesday nights, and am giddy with excitement at the prospect of spending 13 weeks in Bethlehem with all these good people.
            There are many ways to read Ruth, as a woman’s story, as a love story, as a slice of life, as a theodicy,  as royal history, just to name the first few.  I hope to cover these and other angles on this sublime book in our class, but the one question we will not ask in class that I’d like to ask here is “why?”
            There is no doubt that Ruth and Naomi are under the protective wing of Yahweh (2.12). Although they are without a protector, far from home, and impoverished they find a redeemer and husband, receive a son, and are found in the lineage of King David.  The three happy endings that conclude the book could not be more complete.
            Why were the Levite’s concubine, so viciously raped, the 400 kidnapped virgins of Jabesh Gilead, or the hundreds of kidnapped virgins at Shiloh not under the same protective wing? I f we are scoring purely on the basis of mathematics, where is the glory in saving two, when hundreds were so abused and unprotected?
            I don’t know that I have a satisfying answer to that question. I do know some Bible facts.  I know that God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all (I John 1.5) – and so God is not the source of any evil.  He did not intend or determine that any of the awfulness of the book of Judges should happen.  I also know that “every good and perfect is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no shifting, shade, or shadow” (James 1.17).  God is the only source of the goodness we find in the book of Ruth.
            I know that from the moment God told Adam and Eve about the tree they were NOT to eat from, He gave us free will, which He does not violate, and which we use for destructive purposes.  Those terrible events at the close of the book of Judges are ended with the comment, “In those days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” (Judges 21.25). We do not exercise free will in a vacuum.  Often the exercise of free will produces victims.  As our elder, Mike Hickman said last Sunday evening, before his closing prayer, “There is evil in the world, and God is not the source of it.”
            I also know that Ruth and Naomi exercised their free will to go home to God’s people, to be obedient to His laws, and trust in His provision.
            Finally, I know that the only way to find similar provision is to pursue a similar path of trust and obedience.  In those days, when the Judges judged, as well as in these days, when most still “do what is right in their own eyes,” this is the only safe path to take.

I read this incident from the life of Fred Rogers recently.*  It seems that during his seminary studies he would drive on Sundays to different congregations in order to expose himself to as many styles of preaching possible.  One Sunday in the late 50’s Fred and a few friends drove out to hear a certain preacher only to find that he was away and a substitute was preaching.  The substitute was a retired preacher, and his style was plodding.  Fred was greatly disappointed to the point of irritation by the time the sermon was over.  When he turned to complain to his friends he found that one, a young lady, was in tears.  “That was exactly what I needed to hear,” she explained.  Fred learned that the Word is alive with the breath of God, and that its power transcends the limitations of the deliverer when the word is sincerely delivered.
            In fact, according to the word itself, the sincerity of the deliverer need not be a hindrance to the power of the Word:
            Some, indeed, are preaching Christ from envy and strife, but some also from good will…..What then?  Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice, yes and I will rejoice!  (Philippians 1.15,18)
            I know this to be true, personally.  At the end of my sophomore year one of our suite-mates started to smell funny.  We were very supportive of him during this malady, keeping the levity level high by calling him “Lassie”, saying he smelled like sheep-dip, and calling our “baaa, baaa.”  Every Thursday we had a dorm devotional, and when it was our suite’s turn I planned a devotional around all the great sheep passages from the Old and New Testament.  We read Psalm 23, Ezekiel 34, John 10, and I Peter 5.  We sang “The Lord My Shepard Is,” “Fear Not Little Flock,” and “The Ninety and Nine.”  The guys in my suite barely contained their laughter, our gamey suite-mate glowed crimson, and I was plagued by a growing sense of guilt.
            And then…..
            At the end of the devotional, a guy from another suite was visibly troubled.  He shook a bit, and tears dropped, one by one, from his eyes.  He responded to the gospel that night, and was baptized.
            I am not over the guilt of that moment yet.  It isn’t the worst thing I ever did, but it is probably in the top 5.  Combining, as it does, malice, cruelty, and blasphemy, it is quite an achievement in sin.
            And yet, the Word had its work.  Despite all this the Word expressed its power.  The Word transcends.  It is alive with the breath of God (II Timothy 3.16).  It is living, active, sharper than a double-edged sword, and able to perform microsurgery on our thoughts and intentions (Hebrews 4.12).  The Word contains its own power, and we are, at best, only crock-jars where the jewel is kept (II Corinthians 4.7).
            Over the years I have had youth interns, faced with delivering a devotional, who have despaired “I don’t have anything to say!”  My answer has always been, “You don’t need to generate something to say.  The Word speaks.  Go study the Word, and share what you have learned.  That is all.”
            Mel continually tells the youth group, “Read your Bibles.”  Amen.  The Word is the seed that grows and produces fruit (Mark 4.14).  It contains more than law, strategy, and advice – it contains power.  Independent of – no – transcending our limitations, the Word will do its work.  Fear not little flock – we are not left with only our own energies and capabilities – we have the Word, and the Word brings its own power to bear. 
                                                                        - Barry Bryson
* The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers, by Amy Hollingsworth, Integrity Publishing, 2005 (pp. 33-34).

           A few weeks ago Ben Cobb delivered a thoughtful sermon on the meaning of the “Fear of the Lord” we read so much about in the Bible.  If God is love (I John 4.8), and if there is no fear in love, for love casts out fear (I John 4.18), how can we be told that the fear of the Lord is a positive response?  Ben did a great job exploring this question, drawing upon his experience as a football player to demonstrate how fear can unite and inspire, and that being a little afraid of someone is not prohibitive of loving them and depending on them.
            I have known this first hand.  The thing I remember first about my dad is that he was so much bigger.  When you are two or three, and your dad towers over you – that is your first, and lasting impression.  Even after I got to be an inch or two taller that he was it didn’t feel that way.  Since it is usually your dad, not your mom, who throws you around, wrestles you, and generally offers himself up as your amusement park ride, most of us kids get an indelible impression of the insurmountable superiority in strength our dads have over us.  That impression lasts beyond the moment when you are physically stronger than he is.  I was never much afraid of my mom being angry at me, but I was afraid of my dad.  I also never felt really safe at night unless he was home with us – which was not always the case since he worked shift work.  I would have hated to have had a dad I wasn’t afraid of a little bit. 
            The best teachers, the best coaches, I daresay the best leaders in any endeavor have this quality – it is the by-product of strength.  It is this quality that allows us followers to feel safe, secure, and confident.
            Proverbs tells us that the beginning of knowledge and wisdom is the Fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1.7, 9.10).  I would like to assert as well that the Fear of the Lord if the beginning of courage.
The LORD is my light and my salvation,
Whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the defense of my life,
Whom shall I dread?
Psalm 27.1
            In a phrase that is easy to miss, Peter says (I Peter 2.17b) “Fear God, honor the king.”  Notice the difference in relationship.  Honor to whom honor is due (Romans 13.7) certainly – but we fear no human authority.  Jesus says to Pilate, “You have no authority over me, except what you have been given you from above (John 19.11).  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego told Nebuchadnezzar “Our God, whom we serve is able to deliver us from this fiery furnace…and even if He does not, let it be known to you, O King, we will not serve your gods or bow down to the golden image you have set up, (Daniel 3.17-18).
            Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not tremble or panic for the LORD you God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1.9)
            We are strong and courageous BECAUSE God is with us.  His size and strength are overwhelming, superior.  We are His children, we know.  His size and strength are a little scary – but that makes us feel safe, confident, and courageous.
            The Fear of the LORD is the beginning of courage.