[8] Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
[9] for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.
[10] My son, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
[11] If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
let us ambush the innocent without reason;
[12] like Sheol let us swallow them alive,
and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
[13] we shall find all precious goods,
we shall fill our houses with plunder;
[14] throw in your lot among us;
we will all have one purse”—
[15] my son, do not walk in the way with them;
hold back your foot from their paths,
[16] for their feet run to evil,
and they make haste to shed blood.
[17] For in vain is a net spread
in the sight of any bird,
[18] but these men lie in wait for their own blood;
they set an ambush for their own lives.
[19] Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;
it takes away the life of its possessors (ESV).

“Evangelical defeatism is a failure of Biblical perspective. After all, the risen Lord Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth and has been made head over all things for the Church; he is the ruler of the kings of the earth and he is currently putting his enemies beneath his feet; he has presumably asked the Father for the nations as his inheritance and the ends of the earth as his possession – and so he will receive them. All nations will bow to Jesus and all kings will serve him and his kingdom will grow to become the largest plant in the garden with the nation-birds finding rest in its branches. His kingdom is the stone which crushed the kingdoms of men in Daniel 2 and which is growing to become a mountain-empire which fills the whole earth. He is the firstborn from among the dead and therefore it is right that in all things he has the first place. He has been highly exalted and not only will every knee bow to him but every knee should bow to him.

“Evangelical defeatism is a failure of historical perspective. After all, the statistics are out there. It took 1400 years for 1% of the world’s population to become Christians and then another 360 years for that to double to 2%. Another 170 years saw that grow from 2% to 4% and then, between 1960 and 1990 the proportion of the world’s population made up of Bible-believing Christians rose from 4% to 8%. Now, in 2007, one third of the world’s population confesses that Jesus is Lord and 11% of the world’s population are “evangelical” Christians. The evangelical church is growing twice as fast as Islam and three times as fast as the world’s population. South America is turning Protestant faster than Continental Europe did in the sixteenth century. South Koreans reckon that they can evangelize the whole of North Korea within five years once that country opens up. And then there’s the Chinese church consisting of tens of millions of Christians who have learned to pray, who have confidence in Scripture, who know about spiritual warfare, have been schooled in suffering and are qualified to rule. One day in the next century that Church – tens of millions of Christians trained to die – will be released into global mission and our prayers for the fall of Islam will be answered.”

Help us to serve You evermore
With hearts both pure and lowly;
And may Your Word, that light divine,
Shine on in splendor holy
That we repentance show,
In faith ever grow;
The pow’r of sin destroy
And evils that annoy.
O make us faithful Christians. – LSB

“Music, as I said, teaches patience, but that formulation is too intelluctualist, as if I am standing back, watching myself listen to music, and then concluding, ‘Ah, yes.  I see that I am supposed to learn patience from the experience of listening to music.’  Much better to say that music trains us in patience.  It trains us in moving through dissonance and tension toward resolution.  It trains us in waiting for the climax, waiting for beauty to build and build.  It trains us not to seize.  Music trains us in good sex, sex that takes time” (52-53).

Dr. Leithart continues to make his case, describing the musicality of a text, particularly in that music and text share the quality of their meaning being unfolded over time.  “Texts are musical in that they take time, and the time texts take is musical time.  The time of music and the time of texts always involves reaching for the next moment.  Music is always moving toward the next note, and we are always reading beyond the individual word.  Each sentence compels us to move forward; each paragraph carries us along to the denouement” (53).

These realities have profound implications, particularly in relation to our hearing the biblical text.  Given the instantaneous nature of our society, we must recognize the challenges that face us, as well as be aware of our tendencies.  “We are often impatient with music, and we are impatient with texts.  A writer lingers, and we want to grab him by the throat and say, ‘Get to the point, man!’  Evangelicals would reverently refrain from throttling an apostle, but the demand for practical Bible teaching often has this threatening subtext.  ‘Don’t give me all these names, lists, genealogies, stories.  Tell me what to do.  Tell me about Jesus.’

“God in his infinite wisdom decided to give us the a book, a very long book, and not a portrait or an aphorism.  God reveals himself in his image, Jesus, but we come to know that image by reading, and that takes time.  God wants to transform us into the image of his image, and one of the key ways he does that is by leading us through the text.  If we short-circuit that process by getting to the practical application, we are not going to be transformed in the ways God wants us to be transformed.  ‘Get to the point’ will not do because part of the point is to lead us through the labyrinth of the text itself.  There is treasure at the center of the labyrinth, but with texts, the journey is as important as the destination.  ‘Get to the point, man’ is the slogan of the the liberal theologian; it is a demand for the kernel without the annoying distraction of the husky twists and turns of the text itself.

“We cannot get the meaning of a text without taking time.  And as the text takes time, the meanings of earlier texts shift with the introduction of later texts.  The meanings of the texts emerge through the time of reading” (55).

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. ⁷But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”

⁹(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? ¹⁰He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) ¹¹And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. ¹⁵Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (ESV).

What did Jesus give?  His grace.  His favor.  And that favor is particularly expressed through the giving of people to equip the saints and build up the church.  (The gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as a result of Christ’s ascension appears to underlie this section, particularly verses 3-7.)  While Jesus may have bodily ascended, He has not left His Church without help in the form of flesh and blood.

Also note, in verse 8, that Paul quotes from Psalm 68.  Meditate on the entirety of that psalm in the light of Christ’s passion, resurrection, and ascension, and it will take on a whole new depth of meaning, inspiring us to sing it all the more vigorously – even this Lord’s Day in our Ascension celebration.