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.