November 25, 2010

1 Chronicles 21

What’s the big deal about taking a census? It was a big enough deal that God chose to kill 70,000 men as a punishment. Also, even David himself admitted that he was the one who made the decision. Why punish the people for his decision? What’s up with that? Also, we saw yesterday that Chronicles did not even mention David’s murder and adultery. Most of us would think that adultery and murder were far more serious of sin than ordering the census. Yet 70,000 die for the census and David get’s his sin published in the Chronicles. What’s up with that?

The essence of David’s sin was pride. The purpose of a census in his day was mainly to assess his military strength. The last nationwide census was taken when the nation had finished its 40 years in the wilderness. It was time to begin the conquest of Canaan. They needed to know how many fighting men they had in order to assess how to organize their troops in order to prepare for battle. David had already reached the apex of his military strength without a census. How could a census aid him? It couldn’t. It was a matter of pride. Look at results of the census. He had 1,600,000 fighting men. Joshua only had 600,000. Wow! He had a million more men than Joshua! Sounds like pastors swapping statistics about their ministries.

Okay, so he was having a problem with pride. So why come down so hard on that? Pride seeks to rival the glory of God. God will not have a rival. It is worse than adultery or murder. It condemned Satan to hell. It barred Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. It transferred their kids, you and me, into a cloud of darkness. It clouds the glory of God. When we are proud, we cannot see Him. God will have nothing to do with it. Having a hard time understanding the justice of God? Having a hard time seeing the glory of God? It is pride. The more I catch little glimpses of His glory, the more I begin to see how horribly proud I am. Lord, help me to empty myself of my pride so that I may see your glory. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john

1 Peter 2

Everyone wants to be part of something big. Andy Stanley tells of an early mentor in his life who used to ask him, "Whatcha got goin' 'big'?" At that stage in his life, the question bothered him. At that point in Andy's life the biggest thing he had going was getting 20 youth group members to the amusement park and back without losing any of them. Churches in the USA don't grow unless you've got something 'big' going on. One would think that if you are following the Lord of the Universe that one would be part of some impressive things. One would think that following the Lord of the Universe would be like moving from one massive victory to another.

Peter is speaking to people who are undergoing persecution because of their faith in the Lord of the Universe. They were not seeing anything 'big' going on in their lives. Consequently they were beginning to drop out. He writes to encourage them to be faithful in the midst of the persecution. He reminds them that Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone. We've looked at the cornerstone quote before in Matthew 21:23-46 and Luke 20:1-26. In the midst of persecution and seeming smallness, Peter recalls Jesus' words as encouragement. The ironic thing is that history demonstrates that when the church is persecuted, that is when Jesus does some of His 'biggest' building.

Remember a cornerstone is one from which the rest of the building gets its orientation. It is the main stone in the foundation. You pick the best quality for that stone. It is usually massive and perfectly shaped. By uniting two intersecting walls, a cornerstone aligns the whole building and ties it together. Jesus says that He is the stone the builders rejected. He became the chief cornerstone.

The wall of heaven and the wall of earth intersect. Ever since the fall of Adam the human cathedral was falling. It collided with heaven's wall. The human wall was crooked and never fit. God gave some instructions to the Jewish nation concerning how to build. Imbedded within that instruction were prophecies concerning the Cornerstone. This is a quote of Psalm 118:22, 23.

The glory of Jesus is that He uses living stones. We are not some dead cathedral that never changes. We are a living organism that continues to grow and change but ever into a more beautiful reflection of Him. We are part of an organism that is so 'big' that we cannot see even a small portion of it. But He is building it one cell, one stone, at a time. In shaping the stones sometimes the mason has to cut or break off the unwanted edges of stone. Since we are living stones, that hurts. Since we cannot always see the whole living cathedral of which we are part, we feel isolated. That is why we must look at His glory. He also suffered. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed. That's the way He fits living stones together. He's got something goin' really big. We are part of it. I cannot think of anything bigger than being part of a living wall that intersects heaven and earth! Let's participate in His work. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor John