Value of Value Judgments

Transcript

add but it it can also be uh considered x uh ex accepting or rejecting positive or x negative x value like the word related cognate word x veilance talks about uh something on the x say that we talk about you know valences x in chemistry is something positive or x negative charge uh you can think of x value in that context too it's something x it's is it good or is it bad we call x things good or bad x the value judgments are of course x subjective they aren't uh anything x inherent about any situation it's just x how we feel about it how we think uh x hence the word judgment it's just our x our position on something that that x happens so give you x a few uh examples here in a minute but x another key key idea key thing to keep x in mind is any value x judgment uh to to call anything good or x bad implies there is some x basis a x reason a uh some kind of say you have a x protocol in your head an algorithm or x something says I label this as good or x bad based on something and that basis is x going to be a key part of the story is x as as we uh continue here x tonight so here's just to uh make this a x little more tangible what are some of x the things which we typically would say x this is good this is great this is x wonderful this is positive or you get a x promotion at work uh your car starts x when it's 15 x below am I going to get home or you know x am I going to get to x the uh they got x okay no nothing on the MRI I remember x that one when they did one of my head x when I was having migraines and the guy x said yeah we did an MR your head and we x didn't find anything you know it was it x was encouraging I think but I they meant x it that x way x um there's somebody in the meeting you x know that okay this is good this guy's x you know this is great uh daughters x engage somebody really good or your x neighbor with the uh who starts his x diesel pickup truck at 5:00 every x morning and lets it warm up for 20 x minutes Steve is laughing like he's got x that x neighbor Harper SE yeah and he gets x transferred to Trenton so w these are x all things which are likely to be great x and on the other side the corn thing x coin things that are likely to be bad is x uh you don't get the promotion but some x incompetent coworker gets promoted ahead x of you x the car doesn't start triaa says they'll x be there in half an hour but it's an x hour and a half and you missed your x appointment it's been booked for six x months stuff like that so this is more x than bad this is where words come up x that we might not use elsewhere you get x a positive on show something you got to x deal with uh some some x issue your flight gets cancelled but not x for your baggage that that ends up in x Omaha anyway you don't go any place here x you're still in the airport but uh x someplace you find out a week later that x your stuff is actually in Omaha and it's x not your jerk neighbor that get sent to x Trenton it's you get transferred to x Trenton x so this is bad news so the these are the x type of thing I'm uh talking about and x two things to note about these uh one x is circumstances that happen to us not x so much I'm talking today about these uh x choices of life you know we get a lot of x exhortation and needful exhortation x about choosing the hard way not getting x sucked up into materialism the easy life x not really talking about that type of x good and bad of things you know our way x of life it's just stuff that happens to x us that we tend to label good or bad the x two overlap it a little bit but I'm x really talking about so stuff that x happens to us the other important Point x remember is anything we call it good and x bad is I'm only concerned with the value x judgment part we're not saying that x something might be inconvenient x something might be painful something x might be costly something might be a x nuisance something might be embarrassing x there's all kinds of other things it's x the label we put on those this you get x the value judgment there's a big story x about value judgments here about why we x even have them in in our life uh you x know where they come from why do we make x them what's the basis that's that's what x we're get uh getting at x here so let's look at a little Biblical x history of value judgments because there x it's not just to say psychological x emotional thing there there's a a this x is primarily a theological issue it's x not primarily there's a big x psychological component to it but this x is a the logical issue so what is the x first value judgment give you hints in x Genesis 1 where do you think it comes x from very first value judgment is x where x it's only four verses into x Genesis where God calls the light x good that is a value judgment and I'll x explain why in a moment uh it doesn't x stop there as you know there's a six x other x places uh six places where God saw some x aspect of creation that which was good x and then finally at the end of x everything the whole uh United the x working together the the harmony the the x environmental synthesis of everything he x says this is very good it's just good x stuff those are value x judgments uh so the question is or what x the questions we start asking about this x is x uh some questions you should be asking x are remember one how do these statements x fit in the creation account what do they x do do they Advance the work in other x words is anything created or separated x or moved as all other God's activities x are When God says he saw something and x it was good x well it doesn't the important point is x those x statements could be eliminated entirely x from Genesis and you'd still have x exactly the same creation account there x could be maybe just one at the end where x God says God made everything this is x very good but it's repeated insisted x that what God made was good as if it x could be otherwise but the the point I x want us to think about is those cat x atory of what type of statement that is x amidst all these other statements about x God said this let this happen this was x created God made this God put this here x all activities but these statements do x no work they do not Advance the work and x they so they don't x add x uh uh progress to the work but what do x they add they're they for a reason it x adds something and uh again I don't know x if I'm going to answer this fully right x now but it's it's it's important to x think about these statements is as x seeing these uh value judgments that God x makes are there not x to deal with what happened but to add an x overlay to what happened called a x valuation a not an eval A and A x valuation there God is putting a value a x positive value in this case because God x says it was uh x good and the same question uh I posed a x few minutes ago anytime you think about x a value judgment you have to ask the the x question what is the x basis of for God declaring that that was x good uh this might seem pretty obvious x it's good because God just made it and x it came out obviously it wasn't going to x be uh x bad was anything that God created not x good does the word evil show up or bad x or flawed no nothing like that shows up x but uh was there anything not good so x again you ask the question if everything x is good what's what's the point of x saying all this and we'll find out x there's a couple points one is that God x makes value judgments value judgments x are the territory of x God we're going to visit that x uh a little later many times this is the x say strictly the territory of God and x these statements like I said these are x called value x judgments so that's all good literally x it's all good uh where is the first x place we find something that is not good x or evil well it's in the the knowledge x the tree of Good and Evil that's the x first time we we come across this so now x we learn that everything that God made x was good but there's an opposite there's x something else that is there we don't x know what but good and evil shows up x it's in the context of what God has x already said another kind of really x important uh theological Point here here x is the tree of knowledge of Good and x Evil shows up after God has already said x this is good this is good this is good x this is good this good that's that's one x of the x context so far everything has been good x and in Toto together it was very good x there was one thing however that was x labeled not good it's not evil but it x was labeled not good and you probably x remember that that was uh the man that x God made was without a mate among all x the pairs of animals male and female x created them but there was not a female x for Adam and God said it's not good the x man should be alone so he remedied that x that situation was not x good it was not wait let me get this let x my tongue tongue lined up here right it x was not evil but it was not good he used x the word not good rather than x evil okay so the first mention of x actually the word Hebrew word evil or x English is in when the uh tree of x knowledge of Good and Evil is introduced x that's the first x place first mention of x that it x comes in it's it's introduced and it's x introduced with I would say U A Wrinkle x uh x everything God made was x good including this it's the knowledge x of Good and Evil there's something x that's that's the opposite of good no x one knows what it is uh if you imagine x you're a first time reader you're you're x W it's really hard to read Genesis this x way but uh stuff we're so familiar with x but you really want to say wait a minute x everything is good but now there's x something called Good and Evil Evil's x never been mentioned we have no idea x what means except it's something that's x both the opposite of good and it's x something that's a different kind of x evil than Adam being x alone because that was just not good x that was not evil so there something x else here and then God says no you can't x you can't go x there it's not not not not not for you x it's it's it's there but it's forbidden x it's it's out out of your uh what they x say stay in your lane you don't belong x here this is x forbidden so the x uh next question I think that comes up x is why what's the purpose of any x prohibition God prohibits this there's x got to be a x reason uh you take any any prohibition x here's a a common one you'll see no x jumping no diving no passing no uh x speeding no you know don't walk on the x grass don't we live out here when we go x hiking in the x mountains and you will especially when x you get up to very high elevations in x the tundra zone over 10 12,000 feet x and extremely fragile and slow growing x ecosystem up there you don't step on x anything out there you stay on the trail x you stay in your lane and there science x do not you know you step on a plant x might be 50 years until that thing grows x back and it's only this High uh well x just to protect it so safety of the x plant safety of you this this uh sign x here is obviously for your x safety uh there could be prohibitions x for Courtesy that is this is for x somebody else this this section of the x lake is reserved for boers let's say uh x security x uh I don't know how that would be an x issue in Genesis but that could be a a x reason to establish some kind of order x you know line up here don't go here we x have to keep everybody in the right spot x line starts here not here uh x oops verifying x obedience that's clearly one that comes x to mind when we uh talk about the tree x of knowledge of Good and Evil is you x know it's a often said it's a test of x their obedience is either obey God or x trust God and that's that certainly is x uh a part of it I'm going to go a x different direction but that's certainly x not to be x uh x ignored so you got that was backwards x for words okay so what was God's purpose x it wasn't for their safety the tree it x wasn't poisonous uh it wasn't courtesy x nobody else is around there that they x have to share it with you know it's like x so so uh there's there's some purpose x there we're going to look into x that was the Prohibition connected was x it something inherent about the tree x itself or was there something inherent x in is about the x command like don't eat this tree because x this tree has x some x whatever it tastes bad I know it's the x one of the it was the best tree that was x out there so that's another question to x look x at yeah did God for was there something x special or and obviously this is where x I'm I'm going the or did it become a x symbolic tree because it was off limits x and I you say the tree of knowledge of x gevil was was just another really nice x tree in the garden there was nothing x absolutely nothing special about its x fruit except it was was enticing it x smelled good that you saw it was good it x was a really nice looking tree we don't x have any information about the aroma the x smell of just standing there with oh boy x that's that's tasty that's likely she x saw was good for x food but the uh you can get carried away x with that but x what's x Genesis is if we follow this them of God x making a restriction God saying x everything is good this tree is good but x it's got something about it that I'm x labeling it good now and evil I'm x introducing this idea and because it's x forbidden like you can't go there x there's a x reason why I'm doing that and because I x have set that reason now that makes this x tree something special there's nothing x that say inherent about the tree itself x but it's fact that it's restricted x becomes it's uh let's say it's it's it's x a calling card x here so what a few more question to ask x before we get to the I think the x punchline here how are we doing on time x it's a time yes okay we're we're moving x fast x okay uh have to back up a little bit x I've talked about Good and Evil uh these x words which together occur nearly a x thousand times in the Hebrew text just x just a rough approximation counting x inches in the concordance uh I wasn't x going to count each one but uh it's x about five 100 a little more over 500 to x where the word evil occurs and maybe 400 x plus uh for uh the word x good multiple meanings multiple meanings x it could mean something physically bad x happening there something essentally x pleasurable that's good uh something x material but is it moral yes it's used x for moral it's used for Spiritual these x words x are uh say the word evil is abundant x uh just to get a flavor of it if if you x look at Jeremiah 48 I think that word x shows up about at least 15 times and x about half of them are about the evil of x the the x Israelites that Jeremiah says you did x evil God will bring evil on you of x course the evil is the Captivity and the x destruction of their country so it's x used in these these two ways they're x connected but x uh it can be for discomfort a lot of you x just you know scan down uh uh the x entries in in in in in accordance and x you can see like many Hebrew words it's x got a wide range of sem wide so what we x call wide semantic x range uh good can be used I will do good x for you it's God's blessing could be x abundance it could be about right x Behavior doing right good x thinking so there's a little bit of x ambiguity here in your left uh good and x evil well what was good so everything x was good it was good because God made it x it was good because it was moving x forward toward God purpose it was good x because it was pleasant all the things x uh so there's a lot of ideas floating x around here I'd say I'm Loose Ends let's x say there's a lot of loose ends so far x and then there's this tree that has x something about evil but you can't eat x it why not it's not stated x so uh a logical next question if if x there is a Prohibition which sense of x those would it be a appropriate for Adam x and Eve to not know x about if God says that you can't know x this kind there's this tree of knowledge x but you can't know about it which x sense and that's not so easy to uh well x they certainly would have known what x pain was if they you know walking x through the forest they whack into a log x or something but uh probably something x more in the moral sense but I I think x the answer comes uh x uh as we move ahead but it's again x another one of these questions you have x to ask uh what kind of good and evil is x God talking about x here the x ambiguity of the word the concept is x going to be another of these key issues x as the narrative unfolds because as it x turns out God kind of meant one x thing but when they ate it turned out to x be something else x so this prohibition or say this x limitation I'm going to change the word x prohibition now to x limitation and that's going to be a key x word x here there's a context God had already x provided abundantly for them he given x them so many Trees Deep from those uh x not a matter of them being hungry x there's plenty there x but what's going on x here and this is the there two two key x words that I hope you remember from x tonight one is this well limited x Limitless this is one x idea that this becomes a symbol the tree x the x prohibition is a x symbol a tangible x symbol for Adam and Eve to x understand that God is Limitless x they are limited they were created they x had a x beginning they don't have all Divine x knowledge and so forth they are limited x and this is the basis for their x relationship to God so we are the x created you are the Creator it's the x it's the basis for our relationship it's x the basis for it starts here there's one x God and I'm not it kind of x idea and if you put it in the context or x the uh describe that that with the word x limitation as being another way of x saying prohibition the tree is limited x it's off limits because you are limited x people and to demonstrate this to you I x going to take one arbitrary x tree and say just don't go there that's x for you to understand that I have no x limits I the I Am The Creator you are x limited and if you can understand that x then we have a basis to begin our Rel x relationship so the tree of knowledge x what it represents is the State of x Affairs the relationship between Adam x and Eve as limited created beings and x God the unlimited Creator x being David I think I remember in your x book and you mentioned it briefly in x your x comments um but you had said that Adam x and Eve had to learn an important lesson x one was that there was a x God and two was that they weren't God x right yeah right and that just really x struck that that's that stuck with me x for a long x time um and is that that's sort of what x you're talking about here with the x Limitless and The x Limited exactly yeah yeah this this the x idea of say just take the x word the prohibition do not eat x and frame that as God limited Adam and x Eve to demonstrate to them that they are x limited creatures I make the limits you x follow the limits that's the beginning x of our relationship of everything else x that would happen of our trust in God x and faith that everything else need for x God starts with God is God and by x definition God is limited L God's a x Creator and we are not that and we have x this position before x God so the the good and evil x now uh we can interpret it say what what x was evil eating it was the x evil why why is evil not been mentioned x in Genesis 4 because this uh you could x say this situation hasn't risen but if x they even if they eat it that's evil if x they abstain that's good this is the x sense of Good and Evil evil when it x talks about the tree of knowledge of x Good and x Evil so as we x know uh the respect for this limitation x was uh not x maintained and God's estimation of this x situation was well the humans now know x good and evil they become like one of x us but really did Adam and Eve become x like God they became some something x changed something happened their eyes x were open so forth but were they x Eternal x no were they x omnipotent no were they omniscient like x God were they x omnipresent no they x have they're not God okay x so are they they have the x characteristics of God ver no you're x human beings x but you have transgressed this uh symbol x of relationship and x obtained the we just say knowledge of x Good and Evil but in a human context you x you're human so there's a real problem x here because as we saw earlier in x Genesis God said this was good God's x value judgments knowing good this is x God's business not your x business so we have this uh x predicament a dilemma a uh uh you might x say the the the the point of if this was x a uh not of x was you know just in terms of literature x or you x know what I call that the uh climax of x you got a problem here to resolve you x have this is the story has come to they x have the awareness of Good and Evil but x they're not God x if this is God's so how's this going to x sort out how's what's how is this x conflict going to be x resolved well there's a legacy here and x I'm not going to say go into Adam and x Eve's personal thing I talk about humans x in x general x uh what I call the legacy of being like x God in the sense of knowing good and x evil but we actually not God so our x human nature you you x if you're a human we x have I'll call it the x biased inclination tendency habit we do x make value judgments as I had in one of x those opening slides this was good this x was great this was awful this is x terrible this is x wonderful we do make value judgments x which is an attribute of x God but unlike God we don't know what's x good or bad so so x we value things as good or evil good bad x favorable x by what we have available to us say x physical Financial social emotional x measures you know this is inconvenient x this is cating this is painful this is x embarrassing this is uh you know just x UPS messes up my life so we x take the facts of what happened x and put a value judgment remember the x value judgment is something added it x doesn't x change uh what happened it's just this x label that gets put on it or emotional x label the fact x is a lot of what we call evil is likely x to be good in God's view and we'll now x we're getting to that familiar territory x that I said in in the blurb for today's x class we would get to when we're done x so let's uh summarize all this and then x move into the kind of the Practical x ideas but before that questions that x lose anybody so x far everybody any specific just on kind x of following x this we'll have time for questions x afterwards because I think we're moving x in a good Pace here so so David how was x it that yeah help me draw the connection x between Adam and and Eve eating of this x tree and them x knowing um Good and x Evil like yeah that's coming up okay all x right I think it's in this slide yeah x yeah okay all x right x okay if if if it's not here I'll I'll x make sure I go over that again because I x have a highlighted x point on that I think okay so Adam and x Eve say they When God says to become one x of us it they they attempted to they x didn't really but they attempted to x become Limitless creatures on their own x by saying no we can eat of this tree x it's okay they make their own limits no x that ruptures their relationship to x Creator God he's only the unlimited x Creator is Limitless they are limited so x that's that's kind of the first step of x try to uh usurp God's prerogative of or x the God's Not prerogative but x God's x uh uh x picture x his tangible demonstration of x limitlessness was you here's this tree x don't eat it that means you're limited x I'm not and that was uh x ruptured or yeah the ACT disrupted the x relationship between Creator and x created the legacy of this is they knew x good and evil but there's still limited x creatures that didn't change nothing x changed what did change is they became x aware that they had done something wrong x and they were going to suffer for x it and I said you know x limitations limit the IDE of limited is x a key word here and this is the other x one I call it a surrogate understanding x of Good and x Evil we don't have God's perspective on x Good and Evil that's something that only x an eternal being x knows but we'd have to judge by our own x limits within a mortal frame and that x comes to some say pretty uh as I say x Mortal parameters like how much did it x cost does it hurt x only God knows what's good for us what x advances go way back x to those statements I said about Genesis x 1 what made it good when God said x something was good it was good because x it was moving towards God's x purpose God knows what moves Our Lives x towards his purpose from his eternal x unlimited perspective that is uh God's x domain and not to be transgressed or x entered into by people making a making x judgments and two doing it the wrong way x uh does that help x Steve does that answer your question x yeah I I think it does I mean when when x we x Define x good we tend to Define it as what's when x I say we man Mankind we tend to identify x what's good as what's good for me and my x family and my tribe even the expense of x you and your family and your tribe yeah x in the immediate moment yeah and and I x think what you're saying x is x God defines good not in the immediate x moment but in the Eternal moment what's x moving us and his creation towards the x Fulfillment of his plan x exactly yeah thanks Dad all right x good so because this uh relationship x was corrupted disrupted with you know x some word there broken and God still x wants to restore it and to teach x us but the the uh upshot of it is x it has to use what we call evil to teach x us to be x good and the first instance of this came x of course in Genesis 3 where God x pronounces you know we call the Judgment x of the sentence you know about the sweat x and the thorns and the thistles and the x pain and all that kind of stuff he said x that's to teach x you because you didn't learn you didn't x respect this to teach you you're a x limited being and I'm not I have to x speak to you on your human terms now x which is everything that you think is x bad like weeds in your garden and pain x and sweat and all the things that if x we're working out say oh this is x horrible this is bad now God says no x it's good because that's what that's x what I'm using to bring you back to me x therefore it's good in the same sense x that when I created things I called them x good because they're moving towards what x I wanted in creation is the physical x creation God didn't have to deal with x them Mor you know the otions and the x Animals everything just did what God did x with humans it's different Free Will and x all the stuff so God now has to take the x extra step I just can't say you do this x and I make it and it's good oh you g to x go this way so the the x uh the story continues with us uh x Genesis 5020 I call it the iconic x statement of God working good from Human x evil this is uh when Joseph x uh comes to you know with his brothers x and they're talking about all the stuff x they did to him and and he says you know x you meant evil but God meant this for x good x uh so let's look at this and ask some of x those questions we had before were x Joseph's brothers intentions morally x evil I think we'd all agree they they x want to kill x him okay we say that was evil in the x moral x sense were their actions unkind to the x family absolutely this is what Steve x just said you know what's good for us it x wasn't good for x Jacob it wasn't good for anybody x else but okay so that was evil x there was it physically evil with the uh x Joseph went into the pit we don't know x that I'm guessing it x was x just it said there was no water and I x don't know how long he's there but it x couldn't have been physically fun to to x been I don't know thrown in pushed down x a ramp there's probably some physical x certainly was emotionally horrible for x Joseph because for all he knew he was x going to die of of exposure and x dehydration in there when he was first x thr and was terribly and he's screaming x and and they're just eating dinner and x ignoring him and was you know horribly x emotionally traumatic for the father you x know for x Jacob so this is evil evil evil evil x evil did the brothers suffer emotionally x afterwards absolutely we know that they x talk about their guilt uh at least two x occasions what they thought was x expedient way of getting rid of of of x Joseph and and and and covering it up x with the uh blood soap the x cloak that weighed on them so that was x emotional x evil so it was evil everything about x this was evil selling them uh selling x their brother say it's just evil bad bad x bad right down the line but then Joseph x says well you meant evil and it really x was in many respects but God meant it x for good so that means God's valuation x is not ours and our x valuation is it's kind of limited now x some things we would both agree the the x intentions the moral evil that's that's x absolutely you know uh certain that x anybody would say that but they did it x but the physical there's so much about x this it's wrong but yet God says it was x good so there's uh then you can take x every one of these things too and x probably apply an even greater sense to x to the crucifixion you know everything x about it x was uh evil that the trial you know the x arrest the the pain it was bad bad bad x but necessary so God would say this x furthers my Plan of Redemption it was x good I could have given this whole class x the Marcus aelius of course one of the x great stoic x philosophers from a stoic philosophy x perspect perspective the the background x would be totally different but a lot of x conclusions are the same uh there's x nothing Stokes are very fond of this x idea that there's nothing good or bad x it's just what x happens it's only how we react to things x that can be labeled good or bad one x statement of this there's no Misfortune x that is nothing is evil but to Bear it x nobly that is a good fortune x so the basis of good in Genesis 1 was x advancing God's purpose in x creation and what is God's good for us x how does God how is he advancing his x work in us with the new x creation as I just said it's not as x simple as just making trees and whales x and things and putting there and and x they show up and it's good and they're x in place dealing with people it's a x little Messier x so God wants in US is developing the x fruit of the spirit Godly character many x many ways of you know putting this Faith x love and so forth x specifically when God works with us uh x with adversity and with like what x happened to Joseph or and this is the x The Familiar territory I say I talked x about in that blur we're getting that x bright oh we know this we've heard this x so many times about the value of Trials x and and why James says you know count it x all joy when you meet various trials x because because why because this is how x you x learn x patience and empathy for other people x gratitude for what you do have x dependency on God trust in God x humility uh respecting that relationship x of God's x limitlessness priority what's really x important these are the only way you can x learn Le these things is through that x evil part of that tree of knowledge and x Good and Evil