The One King

I regret my lack of energy in regard to posting this week. By way of explanation, rather than excuse, I have been preparing to travel to Michigan this week, as well as signing a new contract with Virginia Beach City Public Schools.

I still want to honor the Lord with the creativity He's blessed me with, though. I've been experimenting with digital painting lately, so in lieu of a proper post this week, I'm posting a line drawing I've done that will be the basis for a work in the Lord's honor. Look for an updated version soon, Lord willing!

Senseless and Ignorant

“Your leechcraft ere long would have had me walking on all fours like a beast.” Théoden King of Rohan to Gríma Wormtongue in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien.

In Psalm 73, the psalmist considers the prosperity of the wicked. However, as God’s people we, like the psalmist, need not envy them, for they will enjoy the prosperity of this life only for a short time. They have no hope in eternal life for they have treasured the things of the world and not considered Christ.

And yet, even as believers, we often fail to consider Christ. Verses 22-24 of Psalm 73 speak to me particularly well in this regard: “22Then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You. 23Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. 24With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory.” Verse 22 echoes my feelings when I have sinned: I feel like “a beast,” without the ability to reason. I have acted as if Jesus had not taught me the things He has, like my own good sense to follow what has proven to be true and good has just fallen away somewhere. I feel like I deserve to be led like a beast- on a leash.

But the psalmist helps us understand that Jesus does not treat us the way we might think we should be treated. He takes us by the hand, as verse 23 reveals, and counsels us. He does not restrain us or control us; He treats us with love and mercy. He is not distant from us; we are close enough to touch Him. He takes our hand to guide us and receives us in the same gentle, loving manner, as verse 24 states. Though we might feel like beasts, unworthy of anything but restraining, in truth, Jesus deals with us in a way that frees us like our wickedness can never do.

When I am broken hearted because I have been “senseless and ignorant,” when I feel like a beast, it is Jesus that reminds me that I am still valuable to Him by treating me with care and good counsel. It is then that I consider Christ; I consider Him my treasure, worth more than the entire world and everything in it; I consider Him my salvation, freeing me from bondage from which it is impossible for me to free myself. There is nothing to envy in the way of the wicked and the prosperity they enjoy in this life; they are slaves to sin. Our treasure, our freedom and our hope is Jesus, who will be our reward in eternity.

Carefully and Prayerfully

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything new. The main reason for this is that I have been taking an online class called Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Classroom. Most of my reading and writing has been dedicated to that class these past three weeks.

As the class concludes, I find myself reflecting on something I read in an article that I used for one of the paper’s I was assigned to write. The article defined critical thinking as “the ability to analyze and evaluate information.” The article claimed that, among other things, the skills related to critical thinking could aid in dealing with spiritual questions. That statement bothered me at first because I thought faith was much more appropriate for dealing with spiritual questions than critical thinking.

But Christian faith is not blind faith. God has blessed us with the Bible so that we may be informed about who Jesus is. And He continued by questioning them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered and said to Him, "You are the Christ." (Mark 8:29) We do not accept Christ simply for who others say He is. We accept Him because, like the disciples, we have experienced who He is. We have read the accounts of His life, death and resurrection. We persist in communication with Him through prayer. We meditate upon His word. We are extremely well-informed about who our Savior is. I think that is part of the reason why many Christians read through the Bible on a 365-day reading schedule, year after year. There’s just too much information to “analyze and evaluate” in just a few sittings or a few sermons or a few Bible studies.

I suspect many people think that critical thinking and faith are mutually exclusive. That’s why the article’s statement bothered me so much at first. I thought the author might be trying to say that digging into spiritual questions deeply enough would reveal that they are merely the failure to consider things logically and realistically. But perhaps it was me who was being short-sighted. Digging deeper and deeper into God’s Word, exposing it to analysis and evaluation, only reveals more and more truth. God has blessed us with much information about our Savior and the ability to carefully and prayerfully consider all of it. The more carefully we consider it the closer we feel to Him and I think that is His purpose.

Genealogies

The long genealogies in the Bible are often belittled because of the seemingly endless lists of ancient, difficult to pronounce names, often separated only by one or two other words. One of these words is begat in the King James Version. The term begat can mean “was the father of,” but it can also be translated as “was the ancestor of,” the difference being that one’s father directly passes his characteristics and ideas to his children whereas an ancestor passes the same things on indirectly. Thus, when the Bible presents us with these long genealogies, it is presenting us with not just a list of who fathered whom, but an account of the type of family the people in question came from. We are given a glimpse into the way God has worked through a person’s family history.

In the case of the genealogy of Jesus, recorded for us in Matthew 1:1-17, we are witness to his ancestry for at least three different reasons. First, it proves beyond any doubt that Jesus is descended from Abraham and from David, of whom God promised to make a great nation. Secondly, it shows that Jesus was pleased to become one of us, being born of sinful man in order to do God’s work of redemption on earth. Lastly, it reveals to us how God has worked and, perhaps more importantly, through whom God has worked in order to save mankind.

Not all of the people in Jesus ancestry through whom God worked were “heroes of faith,” as my Life Application Study Bible puts it. There were plenty of heroes, but there were also plenty of individuals of questionable nature as well as many individuals of a very ordinary nature. The message we should receive from this list of individuals who begat our precious Lord Jesus—indeed which we should get from every genealogical list in the Bible—is that God works through all kinds of people to bring about His purpose of salvation. He will use anyone, regardless of their spiritual condition, to work His good work. He wants to use us, too, regardless of the fame or infamy of our ancestors, regardless of the united or broken families we come from, regardless of the pride or shame of our own actions and how they reflect on our ancestors and how they affect those that will come after us. He has chosen to save us and there is no reason for us not to receive Jesus Christ, descended from Heaven, born of sinful man, obedient to the point of death, resurrected and ascended into Heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, as our savior.

The Way Our Prayers Should Sound

My daughter has learned the Lord’s Prayer well enough that sometimes I allow her to lead when we say our prayers before bed. Usually when we pray, I say a line of prayer and have her repeat what I say, but when she leads the Lord’s Prayer, our roles are reversed. The other night, when she stumbled over the words “…and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…” I repeated the words as they should have sounded, but did not call attention to her mistake. I suddenly realized that what I had done for her was exactly what Jesus does for us when we pray.

How often do we sit down to pray and don’t know where to begin? How often do we become distracted as intrusive thoughts interrupt our prayers? How often do we wonder if we’re communicating ourselves well enough for God to understand? But we needn’t worry over these things. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus… (1 Timothy 2:5) Through Christ, all that we are that is not in accordance to God’s will is made perfect and holy. That includes our prayers. When our praises lack polish and elegance, when we forget to be thankful for His faithful providence, when we ask more for ourselves than for those who are truly in need, when our words are jumbled or mumbled, we can rest knowing that through Christ everything we put into our prayers, no matter how imperfect, is glorified.

Great Reassurance

God is more concerned with our spiritual growth than our comfort. To one who loves comfort, this statement from the Sunday School curriculum I taught this year at my church might sound harsh. But it is actually greatly reassuring. It means that even if we are uncomfortable- because of physical or emotional suffering, social situations, etc. - we can rest assured that through our discomfort, God will help us to grow stronger spiritually. In fact, it means that we can be assured that the discomfort we experience is the will of God; we need not wonder if we suffer wrongly or if we are suffering for some transgression or if our suffering will eventually overwhelm us and obliterate us. We can feel confident knowing that the source of our suffering is not us but the holy will of God.

So, can we say that our discomfort is actually a good thing? We are inclined not to while we are experiencing discomfort, but how often do we look back at what we have suffered and realize that it was not so bad? When we know the outcome of our discomfort, what we have experienced doesn’t seem quite as harsh as it did while we were in the midst of it. But we don’t need “20/20 hindsight” to believe that there is a good purpose behind that which we suffer through. Instead, we have God’s promise in Jeremiah 32:40-41:

I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing good to them, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

We can say our discomfort is a good thing because we have God’s promise to always do good to us. We do not have to conclude that we suffer needlessly or wrongly if the reasons for our suffering elude us. All we need to understand is that our God does not delight in tearing us down or crushing us beyond repair, but in saving us.

Memorial Day Memories

On our way to celebrate Memorial Day with some friends, my daughter and I found our usual route blocked by a parade. I backed up and took an alternate route, to which my daughter responded, “Daddy, this is not the way!” I told her she needed to trust that we would get there, even though she didn’t know where we were at the time. As soon as we had circumvented the parade and returned to our regular route, she delightedly proclaimed, “You were right, this is the way.”

I was reminded of riding in the car with my dad when I was a boy. It was a little scary to me to look out the car windows and realize that I did not know where we were. But I trusted that my dad knew where he was going and I was always relieved and delighted when I finally recognized our surroundings.

Jesus instructs us to have childlike faith and I think I was blessed to have been spoken to by the Holy Spirit that day in the car with my daughter. God has many purposes for us and we don’t always know where He is leading us or what those purposes are, but we are assured that His purposes are good. Even when the route is strange, we can trust that He has a good destination in mind for us. Great is our delight when we finally reach that destination and great is the glory God receives for leading us there.

A Summer Free of Fleas

Last summer, at the townhouse I rent, I pet-sat for a lively little dog named Spencer. I wasn’t sure I should agree to pet-sit, since my rental agreement specifies that I am to have no pets. But I thought that pet-sitting for Spencer for an hour or two would do no harm.

Spencer behaved himself well and immediately after he left, I was off on vacation. When I returned home from vacation about a week later, I discovered that my living room carpet was full of fleas. All I wanted to do was relax after the flight home, but I had to give those plans up in order to begin the fight against these tiny invaders.

Anyone who has experienced an infestation of fleas knows what a fight it is to get rid of them. There is not one single treatment that guarantees to eliminate all the little pests; rather there is a series of things that must be done with great care. One must first try to kill as many of the adult fleas as possible with insecticide powder or fogger. Then the area must be vacuumed to get the remaining adults. It is necessary to use a chemical called a growth inhibitor to kill the larvae, which are not affected by the insecticide and which generally can’t be vacuumed up because they cling to the fibers of the carpet. After using the growth inhibitor, one must vacuum again. By this time, any eggs, which are not affected by either the insecticide or growth inhibitor, probably will have hatched, so there will be additional adult fleas to eliminate. So the process repeats until the battle is won.

As another summer approaches, I thought about the one past and prayed I wouldn’t have to deal with fleas again this year. God helped me to realize that in order to avoid a repeat of last year’s infestation, I should stick to my rental agreement and not have any pets in the house, even ones I’m pet-sitting for even the briefest period of time.

But God also helped me to realize how my experience battling fleas is so much like our life as Christians, battling against sin. It is a never-ending struggle. After our sin is brought to light by the grace of God, we must confess it with repentant hearts. However, even then we must be aware of sin creeping back into our lives, sometimes from new and unexpected directions. As long as we have flesh, we will be vulnerable to sin that quietly waits for us to let our guard down. Of course, by honoring our Father and His commandments, we can avoid having to fight some of the toughest battles.

As Christians, we have all the right “tools” to help us in our battle. The Bible and knowledge of God’s Law are invaluable in exposing our sin, just as research exposed the weaknesses of fleas and was invaluable in defeating them. Constant, earnest prayer keeps us focused on God’s will for us, just as one must stay focused on the details regarding the life-cycles of fleas. And, most thankfully, Jesus Christ is like our insecticide, growth inhibitor and vacuum all in one, killing existing sin, keeping future sin from growing to fruition and disposing of it forever through His all-sufficient sacrifice on our behalf.

The Dawning of God's Grace

Josiah was eight years old when he began his reign as king of Israel. According to 2 Chronicles 34 Josiah “did right in the sight of the LORD.” During his reign, he sought religious reform and “walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.”

But Josiah didn’t have a record of God’s Law until he was 26. When he at last heard the Law of God read to him by the scribe Shaphan after it had been discovered by the high priest Hilkiah, king Josiah “tore his clothes.” He was deeply sorrowful for the ways in which Israel had strayed from God’s Law.

Like Josiah’s kingdom before the finding of the book of the Law, I think it’s possible to desire the things of the Lord- peace, justice, love sacrifice, humbleness, etc.- before we have Christ in our lives, but without Christ, the truth of those things is hidden from us. Our sinful hearts have no resistance to a world that tells us that we should be more concerned with ourselves and we seek those things only because of that self-concern. I think it’s possible to desire to be free of our sins before we have Christ in our lives, but without Christ, we do not know that sin is that which we desire to be free of.

If there is desire in us to do right before we have Christ, it is God working in us, building the foundation of Christ so that when He comes to us and we receive Him, it is all the more glorious. It is so that the freedom from enslavement to sin is all the more sweet. It is God’s way of setting us apart so that when Christ comes to us, the treasure we receive is that much more satisfying because it affirms that which God has been putting in our hearts- that which the world has been trying to convince us to deny. It is His blessing of allowing us to see that He’s been with us for a long time. We should “tear our clothes” when we realize how we’ve been ignoring Him and all the ways in which we’ve strayed. But we should also be overjoyed to see His grace come upon us like the dawn. In that joy, we should then let that light show fully for all to see.

No Hiding From Judgment

Ahab, king of Israel, was killed in battle by an arrow that found its way between the sections of his armor. This was, of course, in the days when great leaders led their troops into battle and fought bravely alongside them. But Ahab did not die leading his troops into battle or fighting bravely.

Ahab went into battle against the nation of Syria alongside his ally, Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. Witnesses to the battle, however, would have reported to have seen only Ahab fighting alongside his warriors. It was not that Jehoshaphat was cowardly and had ducked out of the battle or that he was weak and had been killed early on. In fact, when Ahab first asked Jehoshaphat to go with him into battle, Jehoshaphat answered, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” In other words, he was more than ready to aid the king of Israel in this venture.

One would have witnessed only Ahab’s presence and not Jehoshaphat’s on the battlefield because the king of Israel had persuaded Jehoshaphat to impersonate him. Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, had his sights set on Ahab and Ahab knew it, so he asked Jehoshaphat to disguise himself to draw off the enemy attackers. Meanwhile, Ahab had disguised himself as a common warrior.

But God also had His sights set on Ahab. Ahab was an evil king: Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. (1 Kings 16:30). And even though Ben-Hadad was fooled by Ahab’s disguise, God wasn’t. That arrow that killed him was not the arrow of a hero of the Syrian forces who took aim at his nation’s greatest enemy and slew him. It was the arrow of an unnamed Syrian archer shot at who he probably thought was just another enemy soldier, if he was even thinking of who his target was at all.

Covering our sin, disguising it the way Ahab disguised himself, trying to avoid God’s judgment the way Ahab tried to avoid it, is futile. Maybe Ahab was completely unaware that his judgment would come regardless of how hard he tried to escape it. But we know better. We know that through Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven. But we must confess our sins with hearts that are truly repentant. We cannot be cleansed of sin we disguise or cling to. There is no hiding from judgment for our sins. In Christ, thankfully, we do not need to hide from it.

Building The Temple

1 Kings 6:7 reveals an important detail about the construction of the temple Solomon built and dedicated to the Lord: In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built. It was to be a holy place, and not to be spoiled even by the sound of hammers and chisels as it was constructed. The stones were prepared far away and brought to the temple to be put into place.

God calls us before Him to worship, but we cannot approach Him in any fashion we choose. Worship that is half-hearted is not worship at all. We can’t enter church on Sunday wishing we were elsewhere, just waiting until we are excused and are able to go out and get our “real” Sunday started. We can’t approach the Lord’s Day with hearts that are bitter because God is taking up so much of our precious time on the weekend. Our hearts must be prepared to properly worship our loving God.

The work of preparing doesn’t begin once we get to church; the preparations must begin “the quarry”- in our homes. True worship comes in setting aside that time for the purpose of humbling ourselves before God, for gathering as the body of Christ in joy and love. It comes in preparing our hearts to be moved by the Word and to do what we can to move others by the way we share with them in the Word. The sounds of the hammers and chisels and iron tools must be heard in the way we live all week long. The blocks must be made ready for use in building upon their arrival at the temple site.

Ask What You Wish Me To Give You

Now Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said, "Ask what you wish me to give you."

The temple was still to be built at the time the events in 1 Kings 3:3-5 take place. The people of Israel offered their sacrifices to God, but they sacrificed in places that had been established without God’s blessing. Even wise Solomon, the king, sacrificed in those places. And regardless of how often he sacrificed or how much he offered, God still met with Solomon on His own terms. Instead of appearing to him in the place in which he worshipped, God appeared to Solomon later on, in a dream.

This reminds me of my life before I came to know Christ. At times, I told myself I believed in God. I even prayed. But I was not in the place God had provided for me to worship Him- I was not in Jesus Christ. God came to me, but it was on His terms and it was not until He had taught me that I had nothing in this world, but that I had everything in Heaven. He did not come to me until he had taught me that there was nothing in this world that was going to save me; that my salvation was in Jesus Christ.

In those times before I knew Christ, when I prayed, it was mostly for the purpose of asking God for what I wished Him to give me. It was not until He met me on His terms that He said to me, “Ask what you wish me to give you.”

Too Weak to Stand?

“He bitterly regretted his foolishness, and reproached himself for weakness of will; for he now perceived that in putting on the Ring he obeyed not his own desire but the commanding wish of his enemies. He wondered if he would remain maimed for life, and how they would now manage to continue their journey. He felt too weak to stand.”

With these words from The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien characterizes Frodo Baggins as extremely regretful after using the Ring of Power, an evil artifact that had come into his possession, which his wisest friends had instructed him not to use. For even though the Ring could turn its wearer invisible, and Frodo had been in great need when he’d used it, it’s use opened him up to the device’s insidious will.

What stuck with me about this passage was how similar Frodo’s regret over using the Ring is to a Christian’s regret when he commits sin. We know that to pursue the temptation to sin is foolish; we also know that often we pursue sin because of our own weak will. Through Christ we are freed from slavery to sin; we are blessed with “free will,” the ability to pursue that which our hearts most desire. Apart from Christ, our heart’s only desire is for sin; in Christ, we are awakened to a life of righteousness that is not our own, but ours through Him. So it is that when we pursue our temptation to sin, we are not obeying our desire to do rightly and honor our Lord; we are turning away from our Savior’s Holy Spirit within us and opening ourselves up to the will of our enemy.

And so often, once the fleeting pleasure of our sin has dried up, we are left feeling foolish and weak. Sometimes, we even feel as if we’ve been harmed, perhaps even permanently. We often wonder how we can continue thinking of ourselves as Christians in light of the knowledge of the depth of our own sinfulness. We wonder if Christ will indeed continue to lead us on toward Heaven in light of how we’ve offended Him.

The event described in the passage above was not the last in Frodo Baggins’ quest to destroy the Ring and free himself and indeed all the people of Middle-Earth from its evil power. Our regret over our own sin is not the end of our journey either. Jesus came and died for us in order for us to be able to continue our journey, not on our own merits, but on His. God does not see us in light of our inability to meet His perfect standards; He sees us in light of the perfect ability of His Son to meet those same standards and His sacrifice for us. We are not maimed by our own sinfulness, because Christ was maimed for us. We are not “too weak to stand” because we do not stand on our own; we stand on the sufficiency of Christ.

The Fellowship of the Ring is only the first book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Frodo Baggins had far to go before he saw his enemy thrown down. The victory over evil in Middle-Earth was yet to come. Our enemy has been thrown down already. The victory over evil on God’s Earth has been won for us by our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Not Finished With Us

2 Samuel 11 tells us the story of David’s sin with Bathsheba. It serves as an example for us of what can result from pursuing temptation rather than turning away from it. But we can also learn a valuable lesson regarding our living faith.

The beginning of the first verse of this chapter establishes the setting for these events. The Life Application Study Bible explains that in and around ancient Israel, kings went to war in the spring because the roads were dry, which allowed easier movement of troops, and because the crops, an important food source for traveling armies, were ready for harvest. It is revealed that David had sent Joab and the armies of Israel to war against the Ammonites, while the king himself remained in Jerusalem.

Why did David remain in Jerusalem? After all, if he’d been marching with his army against his enemies, he would have had no opportunity to be on that rooftop where he spied Bathsheba for the first time. Yes, it was undoubtedly God’s purpose that the events surrounding David’s sin were thus set in motion so that we might learn through him a lesson regarding temptation. But in David’s mind, what was his reason for remaining? He had been extremely successful in battle against his enemies prior to sending Joab out against the Ammonites. David was a faithful man and trusted in God to deliver his enemies into his hands. Could it be that David took God’s presence in his life for granted?

I wrote previously about how I have often failed to accept the offer to have brothers and sisters in Christ pray for me. I know I need prayer; I submit myself to God’s will many times a day and I know that even that is not enough to cover all my sin outside of Christ. Am I waiting for things to become really bad before I humble myself before my Christian brothers and sisters and ask them to help me lift up my needs before God? Was David’s attitude similar to this as he went up on the roof that night? Maybe he was thinking, “Hey, my life is pretty good right now. No matter what happens, I know God is on my side.”

God is on our side; He sent His only Son to die for us as proof. But He never guaranteed us a “good” life. What happened to David could easily happen to any Christian if we take our faith for granted. It could easily happen if we start thinking that just because we needed Him and He met that need that He is finished with us. God had made David king of all Israel, but He was not finished with him. He would not be until a descendant of David’s royal bloodline died on the cross for us all.

"Blessed be He!"

"When He died in the Wounded World He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less." -C.S. Lewis, Perelandra

Lukewarm

During a recent morning devotion I read Revelation 3:14-22- the letter to the “lukewarm” church in Laodicea- and was reminded of an experience I had a while ago. One Saturday morning probably a year ago or more a man came to my door and gave me a flyer and an invitation to his church. I told him I already belonged to a church and thanked him for stopping by. He asked me to pray with him and I did. Then he asked me if there was anything I needed. He even offered to help me monetarily. I replied, “No, I’m doing alright.” He seemed a bit taken aback by this response, then recovered himself and bid me goodbye.

In regards to the church at Laodicea, the words that really struck me were these:

17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.

These words reminded me of my response to the man at my door that Saturday morning. It also reminded me of something other Christians have been saying quite a bit lately: Thanks for keeping me in your prayers! I know that God watches over me although it's not always easy when you're going through trials. Do you have any prayer requests so I can pray for you, too? This is a standard response option on the Christian singles site I recently joined. I’ve discovered the wonderful joy of navigating to the site’s “Prayers” section and praying for the other Christians who post their needs for comfort, healing, and forgiveness, as well as their thankfulness and praises. It is inspiring to see the same people posting day after day; it is an encouragement to post a prayer and see the responses of support come flooding into your mailbox.

After reading about the church in Laodicea, I realized that I rarely respond to the invitation to request prayer from those thanking me for my prayer support. Just like the man who came to my door, I usually think, “Well, I’m doing fine right now. The Lord has blessed me and saved me. How much better can it get?” God has blessed me and I have accepted Jesus as my savior and believe that His life was one of perfect obedience, that He died for my sins on the cross and that He was raised from the dead as the first in a new family of adopted sons and daughters of God. But in these instances where I think that I am doing okay and don’t respond to those offering to pray for me I think I have been overlooking the fact that sanctification is a process; just because I have been saved, doesn’t mean God’s work in my life is done. It doesn’t mean that I can keep God’s commands and live a faithful life on my own.

Part of living a faithful life is facing up to my own imperfections and admitting that I need Jesus to guide me so that I don’t stray from the path of blessing. It is also in realizing that when others offer to pray for me, no matter how well I think things are going, I will always be in a condition of having fallen short of God’s perfect standards. At any given moment, there are so many things I could have these gracious brothers and sisters pray for on my behalf. I must be careful to remember that I am not in Heaven yet, where we will truly be blessed with richness. I am still on my journey of sanctification and have no idea how far I have to go before I reach my destination. Until I get there, I must try to remember that I will always need the prayers of my brothers and sisters in Christ to aid me in keeping to the right path.

The Vicious Cycle

As a middle school teacher, day after day I encounter young people caught in a vicious cycle: one student makes a comment about another student, whether intentionally offensive or not, and the other has to return with a comment of their own, often equally offensive if not more so. This interaction persists, sometimes engulfing other students. There are times when laughter is the end result, but it never seems to be the kind of laughter that brings joy; it’s usually the kind of laughter that is covering up much deeper feelings of inferiority, shame or bitterness. Other times the end result is much more serious, sometimes even grim.

The kids seem to feel as if they are entitled to treat each other this way. Those who continue the cycle are just as difficult to convince as those who started it of the fruitlessness of it. I’ve often asked the question, “Where does it end?” What could possibly be the goal of subjecting oneself to such a hurtful and scary course of events? When a wrong deed has been done, and one has done an equally wrong deed in return, does either party really expect the end result to be at all satisfying?

Samson had trouble dealing with the fact that he had been wronged. When his Philistine father-in-law gave his wife away to another man, Samson took revenge on the man by burning up the Philistine’s crops. He stated: “As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.” But the cycle did not stop there. Samson eventually became a prisoner of the Philistines.

Jesus showed us a better way: Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31) He takes the focus off what others have done to us and puts it on our actions. God wants us to treat others with love and leave the vengeance up to Him. We cannot see the circumstances behind one’s behavior the way He can; we as sinners ourselves cannot properly chastise another for their sins. Our efforts will result in imperfection because we ourselves are imperfect. But our just and holy God’s chastisement is without fault. He will chastise us for our sin and He will chastise the wicked for their sin. He has forgiven us for our sin and made it possible for us to forgive others for theirs through the Holy Spirit. The cycle does not end when ugliness is returned for ugliness; it is ended with forgiveness and trusting in the Lord to handle the rest.

Ill-Advised Treaties

6 The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: "Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us."
7 So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. 8 The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you."

With these words God lead Israel to victory against an alliance of enemy kings who sought to destroy the city of Gibeon for allying itself with Israel. Joshua was not afraid of the enemy, for he knew God was with him. He defeated the enemy kings in a single battle. Gibeon was saved from the wrath of its enemies.

There was only one problem with all this: God had commanded Israel to conquer all the land of Canaan and had strictly forbidden Israel from making any treaties with its inhabitants. But that is just what Joshua and the Israelites did in the case of Gibeon: without consulting God, they went ahead and made a treaty with the wily ambassadors from that city.

Joshua’s victory here is an example of the depth of God’s forgiveness for disobedience. He had promised to help Israel conquer the Promised Land and He was faithful to His promise. Even though Israel had sinned by making a treaty with Gibeon, God made it possible for His people to move on and conquer the other parts of the land as He’d commanded. His forgiveness of their sin, however, did not mean there would be no consequences.

Later, of course, we discover that many of the Israelites intermarried with the remaining Canaanites or turned away from God to worship the idols the Canaanites worshipped. This lead eventually to the trading of the freedom, which God led the Israelites into through Moses and Joshua, for captivity. In other words, although God was merciful and forgave Israel for its disobedience and kept His promise to make them victorious against their enemies, there were still consequences for Israel’s failure to obey Him completely.

There is instruction for us here. We are instructed not to assume that because God forgives our sin, He also eliminates the possibility of its consequences. Just as God was faithful to His promise to deliver the Canaanites into the hands of the Israelites, He is faithful to His promise to look upon our sin in light of the sacrifice Jesus made for us upon the cross. Let us not forget, however, that Israel suffered from the consequences of failing to live wholly and completely for God. Let us not make ill-advised treaties with the world and find ourselves forgiven, yet chastised again and again. The pastor at my former church once said that our faith saves us; the question is in what condition will we enter Heaven?

The Harlot's House

And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there.

The King James translation of Joshua 2:1 gives us a couple clues that reveal the kind of place the spies Joshua sent into the Promised Land ended up in. The use of the term “lodged” creates an image of a place that is not the dwelling of an individual or a family. It’s easy to misinterpret the references to a “harlot’s house” as meaning the house in which a particular woman who happens to be a harlot lives. That apparently wasn’t the kind of place in which these two men ended up. My Life Application Study Bible refers to Rahab’s dwelling as an “inn…providing both lodging and favors to travelers.”

With a clearer picture of what type of place Rahab’s house was, we also get a clearer picture of how the king of Jericho found out about the spies. Most likely a “traveler” spotted the Israelites and ran to the king with the news. One might think at this point that the spies were as good as caught. But God’s purposes were at work, even as the king went out with the intention of ending the threat to his town that these two men posed. For God knew that Rahab’s heart was for Him and through her faith He worked his providence so that the spies could complete their mission. And Rahab was rewarded in the end.

It’s worth noting that Rahab’s house existed upon the town wall; she was physically set apart from the rest of the society in which she lived, at the very edge, “one stop short of rejection” because of her profession, according to the Life Application Study Bible. In addition, apparently there was a window of the house which looked out over the wall. Rahab, who was involved in a very ugly side of society daily, could look out upon the land that was Promised to the Israelites, the land which would eventually swallow up Jericho, something which all of Jericho feared except Rahab. Is it possible Rahab turned her back on her situation, looked out that window and trusted in the goodness of the God who could do exactly what everyone else in town feared? God knew to lead Joshua’s spies to Rahab’s house because He knew her heart was open to Him. Rahab was physically set apart from the rest of the town by the location of her house; she was spiritually set apart from them by God to be used to accomplish His purposes because of her faith.

The location and orientation of Rahab the harlot’s house was representative of her spiritual condition. How many of us feel like we are “one step short of rejection” by society, family, friends, colleagues, etc.? I think that through Rahab God has proven that regardless of our situation, if it is His will to draw us to Him, He will. It is such good news that He has drawn us out of our sinful conditions through Christ. May His purposes be accomplished through us by the Holy Spirit. May our hearts be open to Him the way the heart of Rahab was.

What's Wrong With That Child?

We do not like to be limited. Part of my job as a teacher is to place limits on children and every day I encounter a youngster that takes great offense to that. I confess that one of my first reactions is to say to myself, “What is wrong with that child?” But I often react in a similar fashion when others place limits on me. I very much resented it the other morning when the drive-thru teller at a local fast-food restaurant told me I could not order lunch because they were still serving breakfast. They begin serving lunch at 11am and it was approximately 10:58am.

I am thankful that the Holy Spirit was with me and made me conscious of how I handled this situation. There was a part of me that wanted to march inside the restaurant and complain to a manager. But would I have been right to do so? After all, wasn’t the teller just doing her job? Would I have been honoring the Lord by indulging my wounded pride? There’s one other reason I’m thankful for the Spirit’s guidance in that instance: my six year old daughter was with me. Would I have been setting a good example of forgiveness by dwelling on the situation? Would I have been showing love to my neighbor by blaming this poor drive-thru teller or the store manager for the difficulty I was having ordering lunch?

My Life Application Study Bible suggests that Miriam and Aaron were not made as conscious of the way they handled a situation in which they criticized their brother Moses. They were jealous of their sibling’s importance to the people of Israel. After all, he’d lead them out of Egypt. He’d delivered God’s Law to them. He was leading them to the Promised Land. In Miriam’s case, specifically, she realized that she- the sister that had helped preserve Moses’ life and had watched over him as he grew into a man- was no longer the most important woman in his life after he took a wife.

God had this to say in response to their criticism:

6 [H]e said, "Listen to my words:
"When a prophet of the LORD is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.
8 With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the LORD.
Why then were you not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses?" (Numbers 12:6-8)

In light of this swift admonishment and the resulting punishment, I am grateful for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in my situation at the drive-thru. The Lord could have chastised me in many different ways if I had pursued the whims of my pride. But most of all, I am grateful that He prevented me from being a bad reflection of the love of Christ in me. I am grateful that the Spirit limited my pride and my desire to serve myself. I make God say, “What is wrong with that child?” often enough.

Exodus

When the good news of the Gospel is proclaimed, I often breathe a sigh of relief. A sense of peace washes over me as I am reminded that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has bought my freedom from sin-something I could not have achieved on my own, without His love. The same thing must be happening to others around me, too, because one can see it happen. It’s not just a movement of the body as one breathes in the breath of life; it’s an expression on the face, like a joyful light is shining down, warming that upturned countenance like the sun breaking through winter clouds.

I experienced a similar sense of peace when I finished reading the book of Exodus recently. I realized how true it is to say that the Old Testament points to Jesus when I’d finished reading the story of the ancient Hebrews and their experiences in Egypt. The story begins with the Hebrews enslaved by the Egyptians, which parallels the beginning of our lives enslaved by sin. Against the will of the hard-hearted, the enslaved are released, and all though often there is much grumbling and complaining, the saved are eventually lead into the Promised Land. The ending of Exodus reminded me of the glory of being a part of the body of Christ and being free from the guilt of our sin because of His sacrifice.

That is why this blog exists. I wanted somewhere I could keep track of the things God is revealing to me as I experience the Bible again this year via the 365-day reading plan I’m following. I wanted to be able to record the things that stood out to me that didn’t the last time around. I pray that a year from now I’ll still be blogging about the revelations God has seen fit to grant me. If I’m not, at least I can be sure it will be because I’m not writing about them anymore. We can trust in the Lord to continue teaching us regardless of how we respond to it.

A Peculiar Treasure

4 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." (Exodus 19:4-6)

These words reveal God’s purposes for the ancient Israelites. Although the whole world belonged to Him, God told the Israelites that they were special to Him, a particular kind of kingdom among kingdoms, where all would be welcome to approach Him freely. In contrast, when God descended upon Mt. Sinai, He instructed Moses to put boundaries up around the mountain so that none would approach it, for they would “surely be put to death.” My Life Application Study Bible says the reason for this was “[b]ecause God’s glory and power were so strong and because God is completely holy…”

What good news it is that because of Christ we can approach God freely without the worry of dying. As believers, we are that “kingdom of priests” and that “holy nation,” not because of anything that we did; indeed, we are no better at obeying than the ancient Israelites proved to be. It is because of what Christ did for us by obeying the will of the Father fully and by keeping His covenant that the conditions God laid out for the ancient Israelites were met.

My King James Version translates the middle part of Exodus 19:5 in this way: “then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people…” Peter referred to Jewish Christians as “a peculiar people.” Bible dictionaries reveal that the Latin word which peculiar is derived from “denotes…a special possession or property.” All too often we think of this word to mean “odd” or “strange”; that may be what non-believers think of Christians. Nevertheless, may it be that we are comforted by our peculiarity in Christ.

Eyes Like Jethro

It seems like I hear so much grumbling. I hear it from my daughter. I hear it from my students. I hear it from my fellow educators. I hear it from my family. Needless to say, I do my fair share of grumbling, also. I grumble the most when I have to get up in the morning. I also grumble a lot when it’s getting close to the time when I need to get my daughter out to the bus stop and her hair is still not brushed, she doesn’t have her shoes on, she isn’t getting her jacket or backpack like I asked her to…

And yet we haven’t missed the bus once in the 100 days of school that there has been so far this year. God never fails to get me through the morning, no matter how difficult I think it’s going to be as I’m putting on my slippers. And God never fails to make me feel chastened when He reveals to me how much time I’ve spent grumbling when I could have been rejoicing in His love.

It was my own grumbling I thought of when I read about how the Hebrews grumbled as Moses led them out of Egypt. It had been established how cruel a king Pharaoh was and what kind of existence the Hebrew slaves led under his rule. They had every reason to be grateful that they were free. God was with them- literally! And yet still they grumbled, and- at times- even openly fought with Moses over the conditions of their journey to the Promised Land.

Maybe we can’t see God in a column of smoke or fire they way the ancient Hebrews saw Him, but we know He’s with us constantly. And still, we grumble about the conditions of our journey. We grumble because we are short-sighted regarding His purposes. We know that, even if He’s leading us through the desert for now, His promise of eternal life awaits us. Despite the grumbling of the ancient Hebrews, they reached the Promised Land. Despite our grumbling, Jesus has lifted us up out of the depth of our sin and given us hope.

Instead of grumbling about our condition, we need to pray for eyes like those of Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law from the land of Midian:

8 Moses told his father-in-law about everything the LORD had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel's sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the LORD had saved them.
9 Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the LORD had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. 10 He said, "Praise be to the LORD, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly." 12 Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law in the presence of God. (Exodus 18:8-12)

Far removed from the suffering of the Hebrews at the hands of the Egyptians, yet still intimately involved because his son-in-law was one of the key figures in the drama unfolding, Jethro was a witness to the saving grace of God. His response to the freeing of the Hebrews is a reminder that regardless of their current condition, they were much better off than continuing to suffer under the rule of Pharaoh. May we remember that no matter what our condition, we are much better off in Christ than wallowing in the hopelessness of our sin.

Discernment

The subject of discernment came up the other night at the community group to which I belong. We were discussing the Ninth Commandment and we’d discovered that almost everyone in the room could be placed into two categories: those who usually speak the truth no matter how much they may offend the sensibilities of another person; and those who avoid speaking the truth in cases where they are afraid to offend the sensibilities of another person, which was most of the time. Both cases could be considered a breaking of the Ninth Commandment. It was suggested that praying for discernment would help us honor the Lord better.

Had our conversation included more of the Commandments, we probably would have seen that discernment could be applied in many more ways. I realized that the key to avoiding many sins could be discerning when natural, God-given inclinations become sinful. I remembered something my Life Application Study Bible said about the subject of anger: anger, in itself, is not wrong, as long as your energies are directed “toward a solution and not toward yourself or others as the cause of the problem.” If we could discern when our angry feelings start to go wrong, when we begin to stray from the path of righteousness and turn our energies in other directions instead of toward confession and repentance, we could avoid obscuring the purposes of God and remain under the protection of His blessing.

But discernment is not in our nature. We can certainly discern basic things, like when we are hungry, when we are tired, or when we are sick. We can discern things about other people, like when they are in the mood for conversation, when they are pleased or disappointed with us, or when they are hiding something from us. We can even discern when we are in danger of sinning. Often where we fall short is in discerning exactly when the danger of sinning becomes actual sinning.

We love our children and it pains us to see them unhappy, but when exactly do we start to love them so much that their happiness becomes more important to us than trusting God with their well-being? We love our rest and we know it is important for us, but when exactly do we start to love our rest so much that we decide, “I’m too tired to go to church today.”? Men love the sight of a beautiful woman, but when exactly does our admiration turn to lusting?

Even if we could discern when we’re “crossing the line,” we can’t trust our sinful flesh to do the right thing. That’s why the suggestion that we pray for discernment caught my attention. The type of discernment we’re talking about isn’t just discerning right from wrong; it’s discerning that we are weak and, apart from Christ, incapable of making the choice to do the right thing. It’s discerning that Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. It’s discerning His Holy Spirit within us and relying on it to keep us from straying.

The Last Word

When Joseph finally saw his brothers again, years after they had thrown him into a pit and sold him into slavery, he very well might have been tempted to take a measure of revenge on them. But he didn’t. He did not immediately reveal himself and did not seek to pay his brothers back for wronging him. He was in a position from which he certainly could have, severely. Instead, he chose to test them, to see if they were still the cruel men he had known them to be as a child.

As I read this account in Genesis 42:6-25, I recognized a parallel between Joseph’s actions and God’s mercy. God knows we are depraved individuals, so He tests us to see if we will respond to Him in faith or if we will turn away from Him. The brothers of Joseph humbled themselves before him without giving any clear indication that they were changed men. Joseph was willing to be patient and test them instead of assuming they hadn’t changed and making them suffer for past wrong-doings.

We often fail to be merciful in our dealings with one another. We often seek to exact payment for debts we have convinced ourselves other owe us for their wrongs. Even in our own families, in our most intimate relationships, we often lack mercy for those who have hurt us. God is not lacking in mercy; He loved us enough to send His only Son to die for us, to save us from suffering the wrath we deserved. He loved us enough to preserve us.

When Joseph finally revealed himself to his brothers, he told them, “And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.” Joseph saw the larger good that God orchestrated through the evil of his brothers. We must trust in God’s purposes and not seek to have the last word in our interpersonal conflicts. We must let God have the last word.

Free Will

“The whole point about the army is that you are never alone for a moment and can never choose where you’re going or even what part of the road you’re walking on. On a walking-tour you are absolutely detached. You stop where you like and go on when you like.” C.S. Lewis

My pastor recently explained the biblical definition of free will. He said it means choosing according to our greatest and deepest desires. In other words, we will choose that which we want most in any given moment. We will choose chocolate over vanilla if in the moment when our choice is upon us we desire chocolate the most. That doesn’t mean chocolate is our favorite, or that we won’t choose vanilla even given that chocolate is our favorite. It means we’ll choose the promises of God over the lies of Satan if that is what we desire most. This choice, however, is not possible apart from Christ. The reason we can say that our sovereign God has given us free will is because He has given us a heart that wants righteousness more than anything else.

As slaves of sin, we might have believed that we had free will. In truth, everything we did was motivated by sin. Even those acts which we believed would produce goodness or which we believed emanated from our love for someone or something outside of ourselves were sinful acts; they were products of our sinful natures apart from faith in Christ. They were not committed in glad submission to God and His commands. According to Romans 14:23, “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”

Our pastor explained that there were only three people who ever had free will apart from faith in Jesus: Adam, Eve and Jesus Himself. Adam and Eve lost their ability to choose what they wanted most in any given moment when they chose to believe Satan’s lies and eat of the forbidden fruit. They and everyone after them became slaves to sin, unable to choose to do right. In such a condition, even when we think we are choosing rightly, we are motivated by our own selfish desires, our greed, pride, lust, etc.

If God’s grace hadn’t intervened, if Christ had not died on our behalf, no one would choose to love God. We must still guard against choosing unrighteousness, but we no longer are motivated solely by our desire to please ourselves. Because of God’s love for us, because of Christ’s sacrifice, we are freed from the bondage of sin; we are free to choose to act for the glory of the Lord.

God Will Do This

Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph, and they hurriedly brought him out of the dungeon; and when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it; and I have heard it said about you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” (Genesis 41: 14-16)

How often are we asked to perform with very little preparation? When this happens, it’s not unusual to lose one’s cool or to experience a case of “the nerves.” I experienced this over and over as a substitute teacher, setting foot into a strange classroom, with very little time to read the instructions the teacher had left for me. All too often I was still absorbing it all when the first students began to enter.

When Joseph was brought out of the dungeon, he was given little preparation before he found himself in front of Pharaoh, the king of all Egypt. With little preamble, Pharaoh asked Joseph to interpret a dream for him. Joseph was on the spot. The Bible doesn’t reveal whether Joseph experienced a case of “the nerves.” What it does tell us is that his response was one of faith and trust in God.

It doesn’t really matter whether Joseph was nervous. He interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and Pharaoh was pleased. Joseph was able to succeed not because he was given time to freshen up and prepare himself mentally, or because he’d practiced interpreting dreams over and over again and he was an expert at it. He was able to succeed because he was right with God and because he trusted God to lead him.

Joseph handled the task Pharaoh gave him by resting in his relationship with God and trusting in His promises. We can accomplish so much when we trust in the promises of God that are ours through Jesus Christ. As a full-time teacher now, I have discovered that there are still days when the unexpected occurs and I don’t have much time to prepare myself before I’m “on the spot.” But during these times it helps me to remember Joseph’s response to Pharaoh. As my daughter’s International Children’s Bible translation puts it: “God will do this.”

The Greatest Commandment

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) With these words, Jesus summed up the first four commandments, teaching us how to approach our relationship with God. We often lose sight of this when we’re in the midst of difficulty and trial, but these are the times when we need these words the most.

One of those times of difficulty and trial is when our children are sick. When they are young, kids can’t articulate exactly what’s bothering them. Other than the obvious outward signs of sickness, the only way we know something is not right with them is when they tell us “My tummy hurts,” or “I don’t feel good.” Combine this lack of specifics with a parent’s natural instinct to care for their child and one has the recipe for faltering trust in the promises of God. That faltering trust can lead us to a form of idolatry centered on our kids. When things get to this point, sometimes our best effort to keep the greatest commandment is to say something like, “Okay, God, I love You; now please make my child well.”

We know this is not how it works. We cannot achieve blessing through our own efforts to keep God’s law; because of our depravity, our efforts are doomed to fail. But we can look to Christ. Because the wrath of the Father that we deserved to suffer for our sins was poured out on Him, we can trust that God will deal with us gracefully. Even in times of sickness, because His justice has been satisfied, we can trust in God’s good purposes for us. Because Christ loved the Father perfectly and died in our place, we can love the Lord with all our hearts, our souls and our minds through Him.

Child of Abraham

According to my Life Application Study Bible, “God has no grandchildren.” I discovered this novel insight as I read about Jacob leaving Beer-sheba for Haran. Jacob dreamed one night during the journey of a ladder that reached to Heaven. There he saw God, who repeated the covenant promise He had made to Isaac, Jacob’s father, and Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather.

Why was it necessary for God to repeat His promise to Jacob? Surely the words of that promise had reached the young man through his father and grandfather. Was Jacob’s faith in the promises of God as communicated to him through Isaac and Abraham so weak that God had to reveal Himself in this way and reiterate His promise?

It was necessary for God to repeat His promise to Jacob. Not because Jacob’s faith was weak, or because Isaac and Abraham did a bad job of communicating that promise to him. It was because God seeks a personal relationship with all of us. When God revealed Himself to Jacob and reiterated His promise, it was His way of saying, “Jacob, its time for you to know me personally.” The fact that God had promised to make Abraham and his descendants into a great nation was one thing; now God was calling Jacob to play his own, unique part in that promise.

As a father, I want to pass on to my daughter the love God has revealed to me through Jesus Christ. But I also know that whether I do so well or poorly, ultimately it is up to God to reveal Himself to her. She cannot be God’s granddaughter; I pray that He will reveal himself and the promises He has made through Christ to her personally. I long for a day when God’s promises will no longer reach her through me or the other adult Christians in her life. I long for a day when she herself becomes a child of Abraham.

This Is From The Lord

I was struck by the response of Rebekah’s family in Genesis 24 when Eliezer came and asked to take her to be the wife of Isaac. Eliezer described to them in detail how God had led him to the well where he met Rebekah and how God had answered his prayer to make his journey a success. He asked the girl’s family if they’d allow her to leave with him or not. Their response was: “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master's son, as the LORD has directed."

Eliezer had already told Rebekah’s family that his master was Abraham, who the Lord had “blessed…abundantly.” He’d already explained that God had given Abraham “sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys.” (Genesis 24:35) He had brought ten of Abraham’s camels, along with silver, gold and other precious things which one can guess the girl’s family were aware of, given that they took such good care of him as he entered their home. We discover later that Laban, Rebekah's brother, tended to make decisions based on how he himself would benefit from the circumstances and that's probably what he was doing here. But they framed their response as if it was not measured in terms of what they’d receive for agreeing to let Rebekah leave.

It looked like things might change the next day; the family hesitated when the time came for Rebekah to actually depart. Don’t we all second-guess ourselves sometimes after making a decision to act in a certain way; don’t we sometimes reconsider when the full magnitude of that decision is upon us? Even when overcome by the desire to see God’s purposes fulfilled, when it’s finally time to act on our promises, often our confidence wavers. When Rebekah’s family’s confidence wavered, they deferred to Rebekah herself. This is significant, because it seemed as if they were neither motivated by the reward they received for letting her go, nor by the desire to please themselves by going back on their word and insisting that she stay. They seemed to trust Rebekah with the decision and seemed to love her enough to abide by her decision.

When we begin second-guessing the difficult decisions we make, how often do we love God enough to defer to Him and abide in His purposes? It’s easy to offer to step outside of our comfort zones. Actually doing it is when we need Christ the most. His trust in the purposes of His Father was the perfect example for us. Despite the severity of His suffering in the garden of Gethsemane, He deferred to the will of His Father, knowing the goodness of His purposes. As He sweated drops of blood and faced death, He trusted in the good purposes of His Father; through His sacrifice we can trust that, when the weight of our decisions is upon us, this, too, is from the Lord.

The Sixth Commandment and the Stomach Flu

In the community group I belong to we recently discussed the Sixth Commandment. We talked about why “You shall not murder” is a better translation of Exodus 20:13 than “You shall not kill.” We considered how Jesus, in Matthew 5:21-24, extended the meaning of this commandment to apply to our attitudes and not just our actions. We discovered that we all tended to have the kind of attitudes and thoughts Jesus was referring to in that passage at one time or another.

We agreed that the reason we give place to those feelings and attitudes is because of our short-sightedness regarding the purposes of God. We often don’t understand how God is using that inconsiderate driver who cuts us off on the expressway; we don’t understand His purpose for allowing contention to exist between ourselves and our friends and relatives. It’s extremely difficult to be in the midst of a toddler’s temper tantrum and understand that God has a purpose for all of it.

Reminded of God’s unseen purposes as I prepared for church the next morning, I considered the unseen purposes God might have for the “stomach flu” my family had recently suffered through. My response to it fell far short of the faithful response God requires in situations like this. Selfishness, self-pity and fear- these and more are the ways I responded, all the time knowing that I was only complicating God’s purposes.

I was struck, then, how God still works His purposes through us, even though we are so deeply flawed and our responses often so disobedient. Because of the sacrifice of His only Son, our flaws and our disobedience are covered. Christ intercedes for us, covering our imperfections with His own perfection. Christ makes it so that our righteous God’s purposes are carried out through us, even as we complicate things.

Our thoughts and attitudes often betray our lack of understanding of the purposes God has for us. It is a great relief, then, to know that through Christ, those same thoughts and attitudes do not form the basis on which our value to God is judged.

Unto Noah

I had never considered how Noah and his family gathered together all the animals that God commanded him to take into the ark. Then two words struck me in the King James Version of the flood account I was reading the other night: unto Noah. Noah and his family boarded the ark and the animals and creatures followed, two by two, unto Noah. My six year old daughter’s version of the International Children’s Bible translates that phrase as “came to Noah.” There seemed to have been no problem getting the animals into the ark. They just came to Noah. The study notes for that passage in my Life Application Study Bible cleared things up: God took care of the details of getting the animals to Noah.

How would this account have been different if Noah had become anxious over the details of God’s plan? God didn’t tell Noah to go get the animals; He told Noah to build the ark and take the animals with him. Would there have been time to complete the ark if Noah and his sons became preoccupied with trying to ensure that enough animals were gathered rather than simply obeying God’s command to build?

How often do we worry about the details of our lives? How many blessings do we miss out on because we are caught up in the details rather than accomplishing that which God has given us to accomplish? Jesus did not ask us to stress out over the details of our salvation. He gave us a command: believe. He handled the details and our salvation came unto us.

Our Accomplishments

God did not need to create the universe. He chose to create it. It delighted Him to do so and He was pleased with the good- very good- results. Then He took the time to rest in His accomplishment.

That makes me think of the creativity He blessed us with. Unfortunately, as a result of the rebellion of Adam and Eve, our desire to create is twisted and imperfect. The accomplishments we find ourselves pleased with are all too often empty and our pleasure in them fades quickly. Sometimes, we don’t even take the time to rest in our accomplishments, as God did in His, before we are pursuing the next thing we have convinced ourselves we need to accomplish.

Can we find lasting pleasure in our own accomplishments? If our desire to create is imperfect, how can anything that results be something in which we can rest in and truly be pleased with? Is it okay to be pleased with our own accomplishments when we perceive them to be good?

God has given us the freedom to choose either to glorify Him or fall short of His glory through our accomplishments. All my life I’ve desired to be either an artist or a writer. I have found that I lack a certain amount of perseverance: after a while, I begin to question whether my creations are worthy of even seeing the light of day, whether they will hold up against that which already exists or against that which inspired them.

God did not question His act of creation. He purposed that it would be, He accomplished it and He was pleased with it. Of course He was pleased: He is perfect, so His creation was perfect. We are not perfect, so our own creations suffer.

We need to focus on God and honor Him with our accomplishments. We should not persevere to please ourselves or to glorify ourselves: we should persevere to glorify God. It’s okay to be pleased with our accomplishments when they properly honor our Heavenly Father.