This week the movie Oppenheimer was released.
Oppenheimer is credited with being the “father of the atomic bomb” for his role in organizing the Manhattan Project, the research and development undertaking that created the first nuclear weapons.
Oppenheimer, or “Oppie” to his friends and students, was a professor of theoretical physics at Berkeley, and was a disciple of the Nobel physicist, Neils Bohr.
Physicists in Berkeley sometimes said that “Bohr was God and Oppie was his prophet.”
If Oppenheimer was so important, who was this Bohr?
“Even to the big shots of the scientific world” it was said, “Bohr was the great god…a sage of superhuman wisdom. ”
Bohr had near absolute power over his students and even government officials of his time.
Yet, this great god of science…could be petulant and insecure.
He fought with and dismissed out of hand…other physicists whose theories were at odds with his own.
He was brilliant, yet he could not understand the plot of a movie…he would constantly ask others what is going on?
We are talking about 1950’s movies like the Lone Ranger…not the Matrix.
He died of congestive heart failure at the age of 77.
My point is not to mock Bohr, or to belittle his genius…but to ask “does he sound like a god to you?”
He was virtually worshipped…and seemed to allow or encourage it…but he was a man, a smart man…but just a man.
Imagine standing in your yard, and looking down to see a grasshopper with a bunch of insects sitting at its “feet”.
Bear, with me…I know that would be weird…but just imagine.
All the insects gather around to hear this bug, the wisest of the bugs, expound on the mysteries of the universe, also known as your backyard.
It would be silly, ridiculous.
Yes, and it is ridiculous, when men are proud and they allow others to worship them…but more sad than silly.
Is 40
To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?…Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
Bohr died…his heart, made of flesh, became diseased and stopped beating.
His brain, also made of flesh, stopped generating thoughts.
He was making educated guesses about the world…suddenly he was in the presence of the maker of the cosmos.
He was just a man…and his pride was unjustified.
The same is true for every smart and famous and talented person alive right now, making headlines, with acolytes bowing before them in worship.
Human pride is stupid and harmful when embraced long-term.
It is silly in the great and famous…and it is silly for us, the not so great and famous…who practice a sort of everyday pride.
Today we finish Peter’s first letter.
A letter written by a formerly proud man who became humble…and had the corresponding wisdom that goes with humility.
In chapter 5, verse 5, Peter wrote, clothe yourselves in humility towards one another and in chapter 5, verse 6, he writes…humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
So, humility towards people and humility towards God…is how he is bringing this great letter in for landing.
Humility is to frame every aspect of our lives.
Humility is an essential attitude and action for correctly seeing ourselves, others, the world, and the God who has made it all.
And God, Peter writes, responds to the one who chooses humility by giving them grace (power to thrive) and by exalting them(paying favorable attention to, lifting them up in his way at his time).
On the other hand, Peter wrote, God opposes the proud.
It could be active opposition…like we see when God went after the Kings of old who made themselves objects of worship…he actively brought them down in their pride.
It could be opposition as in turning away from them…letting them go their own way…letting the proud have what they want.
They want life to be about themselves…God says, “Okay…have it your way”
How many stories do we have to hear of people who spend their lives working and sacrificing themselves and everyone around them to achieve some kind of greatness…only to find terrible emptiness in the end…before we realize, this doesn’t work?
God doesn’t even have to actively oppose the proud…he can just allow them to continue on in their pride and they will destroy everything good in their own lives.
When I read of people who seem to fully embrace pride, I wonder…”How can you do this? Do you not know that you will die? Have you seen a graveyard? Do you not feel your own heartbeat? Do you not look into the heavens and see the stars and know you are more insect than god?”
But Peter is offering more encouragement than rebuke here.
He knows the human struggle and as always…he is casting vision for reorientation to reality.
The reality of who God is and who we are.
I often repent of my pride…because I am often proud.
I know pride is dumb, but, like the dog in Proverbs, who returns to his own vomit…I am the fool who returns over and over to the folly of pride.
But…I do repent…I don’t stay there.
I know better, and God, in mercy, continues to forgive me and restore me to sanity.
So, let’s hear God’s word…and drink a deep refreshing drink of sanity.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
“Humble yourself” is an ongoing choice…so what exactly does it mean?
How do we do it?
We tend to think of humility as a type of feeling…”I feel humble” versus “I feel proud”
But just as pride is more about action or motivation than feeling, so too is humility.
Thus, we are told to “humble ourselves” as an action rather than try to evoke feelings of humility.
We might be confusing insecurity with humility when we chase a feeling…we have feelings of insecurity, but we are to “do” humility.
Peter gives a clear clue here in this verse as how to actively “do” humility.
We can miss the clue in some translations because they make verses 6 and 7 separate sentences…but in the Greek they are a single sentence.
There is no “humble yourselves” -period- “Cast your cares on him”
As if “humbling yourself” and “casting your cares on him” are two entirely different things rather than two parts of a single thing.
Humble yourself under God’s mighty hand, casting your cares on him…two parts of a single movement.
So, active humility, among other things will involve choosing to trust God’s wisdom and accepting all that he brings and allows to come into our lives.
Think back to 4:19…
“Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”
Entrusting your soul…all that happens to you…to your faithful Creator (he can be trusted and he is the rightful owner of all things)…while continuing to be faithful (doing good)…this is what humility looks like.
This “casting our cares on God” has implications in our humility towards others.
In Phil 2, Paul wrote, that humility towards others looks like putting their interests ahead of your own.
So, a key part of active humility towards God and others is found in this proactive, ongoing choice of “casting all your anxieties on God”
A barrier to putting others first, and like Christ, considering their needs above our own is the natural human concern “But who will care for me?”
Peter’s answer, “God himself will.”
So, continually casting your cares on God is walking the path of humility.
It is turning off the path of worrying, and maneuvering to make sure you are taken care of…and instead…looking to the needs of others while trusting God to take care of your needs.
Cast means to “throw”…the word Peter choose isn’t “place” or “carefully put” it is more, “Here, take it!”
We are to keeping throwing our worry and our need for control on God.
Worry and Control can both be subtle forms of pride.
“No, Terry…I feel worried, I feel afraid, I feel insecure…I don’t feel proud.”
What you feel is not the point…the point is what are you doing?
Acting on worry, acting on fear, acting on insecurity…desperately trying to control outcomes…all this can be forms of pride…it can indicate that we believe we have more control than we actually do.
Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Matt 6
To choose to throw your worries on God is to choose the path of humility.
Now, you may have to do this over and over for the same things…in fact, it is very likely you will…the ongoing act of “taking back your worries, repenting, throwing them on God” is what humility is going to look like for most of us.
Whenever I fly, and I do this as little as possible…I always love the feeling of holding a steering wheel in my hand as I leave the airport.
Christy will look at me, when I sit down…and she will see the big smile.
Terry is comforted and happy…he is back in control…or back to his illusions of control.
I feel anxious when I feel like important things are out of my control.
A big part of my anxiety when I was deployed in 2009, in retrospect, was my inability to control many important outcomes in my life there in Iraq and at home.
I was not anxious because I was afraid of bodily harm…I was anxious because of the fear of lost control.
I’ve told the story before of standing underneath a soccer stadium, Easter Sunday morning, preparing to preach to a bunch of deployed service members…and gently tapping my head on the concrete and saying, “What have you done to me.”
I was in a humble state (I did not feel humble, I felt helpless)…I had nothing to give in myself…I felt emptied of strength and ability.
My humble state was revealed in a time of weakness.
We are in fact “humble” creatures, humble as in (needy, weak, vulnerable)…and when we act with humility we are acting in line with reality as it is.
“Cast on your anxiety on him for he cares for you” is not Peter advocating for passivity.
This is a form of proactivity…this is practicing living in reality.
“Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”
Entrust you souls, while doing good.
Don’t try to “feel humble”
Don’t waste time trying to “not feel proud”
Be humble…do what humble does.
Cast your cares on him
And what exactly does that mean?
Just keep on praying…”I cast my cares on you, I cast my cares on you.”
No…it means actually to “do” not just “say” that.
I am worried about the future…but I will not disobey you to ensure outcomes…I will give my time, my money, my dreams to you…I will cast my worry about these things on you…by being faithful to you in my daily choices.
I will not take a job or leave one out of fear, or a desire to control, or for a few more dollars…I will only do so because of faith and faithfulness.
I will not enter into a relationship out of fear of being alone, I will trust my loneliness to you.
I will not put myself first in my relationships because I am afraid if I don’t put me first, no one will.
I will trust you Jesus, you said, If I lose my life, I will find it…so I will give away my life for the good of others.
I may feel worried and afraid…but I will not do worried and afraid…I will “throw my concerns on you.”
When I grab them back, I will repent, and throw them over to you again.
I will trust that in due time, I will experience your goodness, you will lift me up…exalt me.
What does God exalting us, in his time look like?
You will see his goodness, you will see that casting your cares on him brings his help and involvement into your life.
The problem for us, is often, with his timing…he sometimes seems to be slow in coming through.
Casting our cares on God includes our concern with his timing.
We are to trust him both when the “what” and the “when”.
His proper time could be after death…and ultimately it will be that for all of us.
In the meantime, it means that he will, in his own ways, lift up those who actively trust him.
Over the years I’ve watched Matt and Sara, Trace and Lilly, Aaron and Elizabeth, Matt and Allison, and many other young couples…make good, hard, humble choices and God has lifted them up into places of influence in the lives of others.
This summer I’ve had a front row seat to see some younger people making initial steps in this direction…TWT…but I’m hopeful they will stay the path and see God raise them up for impact and influence.
God lifting you up in his time, will mean, most importantly…having real influence in people’s lives.
He will give you a life of purpose, impact…deep faith.
The next verse marks a transition to a new section…a warning to live in a state of spiritual alertness.
In 1981, two sociologists conducted a now famous study that cast new light on how assailants picked would-be targets.
From it came what is called the 7-second rule.
Seasoned criminals size up potential victims in less than 7 seconds.
The researchers set up a video camera on a busy New York sidewalk and taped people walking by for three days, between 10 a.m. and noon.
The tape was later shown to inmates in a large East Coast prison who were incarcerated for violent offenses against people unknown to them.
The inmates were instructed to rate the pedestrians on a scale of one to ten, from “a very easy rip-off” to “would avoid.”
This is the basis for the Seven-Second Rule…they made their decisions in less than 7 seconds.
Two striking facts stood out.
First, there was a consensus about who would be easy to overpower. Every inmate chose exactly the same people.
Second, and unexpectedly, the choices were not solely based on factors that you would expect. Older, petite females were not automatically singled out for instance
What came as a surprise was that there were other criteria that influenced the decisions.
The inmates read the pedestrians’ nonverbal signals and used those to make their choices.
These factors communicated to the criminals that this person was confident or aware of their surroundings or not.
They were looking for people who looked like soft targets (they would not fight or make a scene) and did not appear to be alert, aware, engaged with their surroundings…the element of surprise.
Let’s read on in 1 Peter.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
This is the same language Jesus used to warn Peter in the garden.
Jesus told his friends, “My soul is overwhelmed, stay awake with me, please!”
He walked a bit farther into the garden and fell to his face in agony, “Father, if possible, take this cup from me.”
He returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
He came back, and Peter was asleep again.
Now, Jesus prepared for what followed, Peter was not…Peter had not been “watchful”
Peter, was once again, writing reflectively, from experience.
The enemy, is looking for easy prey…don’t be afraid, do be alert.
Sober-minded is about a state of mental alertness.
The opposite of this alert watchfulness is to be spiritually drowsy, sort of sleep walking…inattentive.
What this means practically is that you move through life seeing and responding no differently than non-believers.
To be alert means that you see life through the lens of faith…you have God’s perspective on what is happening around you.
This ties back to what he has written already…”Don’t be surprised at the painful trial as if something strange were happening to you.”
If you walk through life self-absorbed, inattentive to what God is doing…then when things happen that are contrary to what you want…you are unprepared.
7 second rule…walking through life as if God is not alive and involved…as if life is about you…as if there is no spiritual enemy.
“Stay awake”…Peter writes…”take it from me, you don’t want to fall asleep when you need to be alert.”
In the next verse we see how Peter is tying this to the theme of suffering…and how it can disorient and leave us vulnerable.
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
This is another way of saying, don’t be surprised…this is not unusual it is to be expected.
Do not let the enemy divide and conquer…there is strength in solidarity.
Resist him…firm in your faith.
There is a lot of weird stuff out there about spiritual warfare…I’ve read a number of books on the subject…some biblical, some sort of biblical, and some not biblical.
Here’s what Peter tells us here:
- Be spiritually alert. Walk through life aware of what is real about the world.
- You have a real, spiritual enemy, and he is dangerous.
- Resist him, firm in your faith…this means not just that you should resist him but that you can. You are able to no become his prey.
Peter is giving a word of courage…he is able to be resisted…you can resist him.
Just stay alert, stay faithful…and you will be successful in resisting him.
Peter failed in the garden…he wasn’t perfect going forward…but he was different…he learned to stay alert and how to resist the enemy.
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
How long is a “little while”?
“A little while” is intentionally vague.
We get some idea of the scope of what our perspective is to be from Peter’s words.
He says after you have suffered a “little while” The God of Grace, who has called you to his “eternal glory” in Christ, will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
To him be dominion (ultimate authority) forever and ever.
In context…God may restore you sooner or later…but God is looking at our lives from and eternal perspective…and his kingdom is forever…so his perspective on a “little while” is probably different than ours often is.
A common OT cry of God’s people was “how long”
We hear this from children, we groan it when we are sick, or suffering, or longing.
How long?
“In a little while,” Peter writes.
In the “little while” it seems eternally long…the long nights, weeks, years.
But, let’s go back to Peter’s great strategic verse:
“Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”
We are to be active, not passive waiters.
God, will in his own time,
“restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you”
These words are very close in meaning…this is Peter casting a compelling vision that all will be made right in the end.
What has been lost will be restored.
What has been believed by faith will be confirmed in fact.
While we are suffering in weakness, we will live in his strength.
What has been taken will be eternally and permanently established.
God himself will see to this.
Now, it is up to us…to believe it.
To respond in faith empowered faithfulness.