The race was coming to an end. My lungs felt like fire; my bowels felt like they were going to explode, and my legs felt like lead weights. It was a six mile jog that was offered by my biology teacher as extra credit to all who run it and complete it. Many of us took him up on the offer. Few of us trained for it. As I neared the finish line, I saw an accomplished athlete from our class. He had left me in his dust at the beginning of the race. Now he was walking. I kept on chugging along. He looked back when he heard my breathing. Immediately he said, “Chaffin, I can’t let YOU beat me! Stop running!” He took off running. I couldn’t answer. My lungs burned too much. I tried to give it a kick. We ran neck and neck for quite a way. He kept telling me to stop. He said he didn’t have much left, but he couldn’t let ME beat him. I am not a great athlete, but I am not a quitter. I kept putting one foot in front of the other. He kept telling me to quit. He crossed the finish line one step in front of me. “Why wouldn’t you quit?” I did not have the breath to answer him, but the answer is, “Because I just don’t have it in me to quit.”
Saul had taken at least a year since his coronation, maybe two years, to develop a standing army of 3,000. With his son Jonathan in charge of 1,000 at Gibeah, he had 2,000 at Michmash, just 4 miles as the crow flies to the northeast of Gibeah. The Philistines had a garrison in Geba 3 miles to the northeast of Gibeah. Whether Saul commanded Jonathan to attack, or whether the 15-18 year-old Jonathan did it in youthful impetuosity, is unclear, but it caught the Philistines by surprise and Jonathan was successful at Geba. It brought the full force of the wrath of the Philistines to Michmash – 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen against Israel’s farmers armed with sharpened farming implements.
Saul retreated to Gilgal and called Israel together. Saul was getting nervous. He was instructed by the Samuel, as a commandment of the Lord, to wait at Gilgal, seven days, until Samuel came to sacrifice. Gilgal had been a very important location in the life of Israel to this point. It was the base camp of the people after crossing the Jordan River ending their wilderness wanderings. Near here they set up a pile of stones to commemorate their crossing. Here they renewed the covenant with Yahweh by circumcising all the males. This sign of the covenant had not been practiced since they left Egypt. Then the Lord said, “I have rolled away your reproach.” (Gilgal means ‘wheel’ or ‘rolling.’) After healing from the circumcision, they celebrated the first Passover in Canaan. It served as their base camp for the military conquest of Canaan. Here Saul received his coronation as king of Israel. It is the furthest point east in the center of Israel without crossing the Jordan. It is a significant location historically, religiously and militarily. The command was simple, “Wait seven days.”
Perhaps Jonathan won at Geba because he had surprise on his side. Perhaps it was because the garrison at Geba was small. Perhaps it is because God was with him, but when the massive Philistine army showed up at Michmash, it was overwhelming. People ran and hid. Saul’s little force of 3,000 began to dwindle to 600 and Saul was worried. Waiting for battle caused his force to dwindle rather than grow. Instead of people rallying to his side, they ran and hid. Saul waited until the last minute, but Samuel hadn’t shown. If he waited any longer, he might have no army. He would not wait any longer. He was a man of action, and he acted. His heart was set on the circumstances not upon the Lord.
The Lord engineers races for us to wait upon Him. It is a wait race. In so doing He reveals our hearts to us. Saul’s heart was revealed. It was not set upon the Lord; it was set upon the circumstances. He lost the wait race. The Lord wants people whose hearts are set upon Him not circumstances. How long will I wait upon Him before I bolt and run? I guess it depends on how set my heart is upon His glory. That is why I need to see His glory every day. Otherwise the guy running in front of me can dissuade me, and I will quit running. But when I see His glory, oh I cannot help but keep running! I cannot help but put another weary foot in front of the other. I cannot help but breathe another fire-filled breath. I am running into His glory and that makes all the difference. With His glory before me, I just don’t have it in me to quit. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
2012 PSALM 51
Just six days ago, I was staying in the New Park Hotel in Amman, Jordan. When you step out of the hotel and look up, you can see the northeast corner of the citadel of the ancient city. Down toward the western end of the citadel archaeologists have found the foundations of what they believe to be a palace belonging to an ancient king of Rabbah Ben Ammon. That was the city to which Joab was laying siege when David made his infamous decision to stay at home rather than go out to war. It was somewhere around here that David had Joab put Uriah in the hottest part of the battle and then withdraw so that Uriah would be killed. It is a rugged area to be attempting a siege. I could see how a blunder could be staged that that would yield the desired outcome without inflicting large losses upon one’s own troops.
Just a few days before I was at the New Park Hotel, I was in the City of David looking at the Archeological Park. Archeologist Eilat Mazar has located there what she believes to be the remains of David’s palace. It sits at the northwest corner of David’s old city. The old City of David barely covers 12 acres, is long and skinny, and steeply slopes from the lowest point in the south to the highest in the north. At Mazar’s location David’s palace would not have to be very tall to overlook every house in town. Moreover, the archeological park indicates that a royal quarter of houses surrounded the palace, meaning David’s most trusted military men and civil officials probably lived very close by. I wonder if it was common practice for women to bathe on their rooftop. If not, what was Bathsheba doing up there? If so, David knew that being there alone would escort him into the area of lustful thoughts. He went there anyway.
Whatever the causes, David was almost literally “caught with his pants down,” not only with the adultery but also with the cover-up murder. David tried to hide his sin. He denied, denied, denied, even to himself. How long had the desire for God gone dry before he knew it was gone? How long was it before he experienced the realization that he was no longer in fellowship with God? How long was it before he realized that his private sin was public knowledge? Was it really only when Nathan the prophet came to him? When and how did this overwhelming remorse take him so that he penned this Psalm? It seems to me that this sin was so premeditated that the answer to all these questions is, “He knew it all along, but refused to consciously recognize it.” If man of whom God implied was ‘a man after His own heart’ could be caught that way, how much more can I?
David’s desperation for cleansing and renewal and forgiveness wash through this Psalm. His confession had to be made public for in a sense his was a public sin. O sure, the thought processes which led to the private bedroom act were all private. Sure, the arrangements for Uriah’s murder were private, but the consequences had public results. Ultimately, it was only against God that he had sinned, but in the process he sinned against Bathsheba, taking from her that which she should only have given her husband. He sinned against Uriah, taking from him that which belonged only to him as Bathsheba’s husband. He sinned against Uriah, taking his life from him. But David knew that ultimately, as the Creator, these all belonged to God. He sinned against God. The fellowship was gone, and he knew it.
Here is where the Glory of Jesus comes in. Jesus does not just wink at the sin. He desires and demands truth in our hidden parts, but when He brings us to the point (which may feel like our bones are being broken) where we see and acknowledge the truth, He brings forgiveness. He does purge us. He does wash us whiter than snow. He does create in us a clean heart. He does renew a steadfast spirit—David had one before Bathsheba, and he would have one again. God does restore His presence. He does this so that other sinners may come to repentance and be converted. He does it so that we might experience true change and experience Him. He wants me to experience Him. David lived the rest of his life in the ignominious circumstances resulting from his sin, but nevertheless, he experienced God once again. Now that is glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
EZEKIEL 20
Why was the human race created? Why were the people of Israel created? Why did God choose to locate them where He located them? Why did He remove them from the land? Why did He return them to the land? The answers to all of these questions are embedded in this passage.
The Lord created us to reflect His image, Genesis 1:26-28. Reflecting His image necessarily means that we must be close enough to Him that a reflection may be made. That is why the Lord would walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, Genesis 3:8. His image is inherent in us via His creation of us, but it is magnified when we walk with Him. Walking with someone implies conversation which builds relationship. We were created to be in periodic, if not constant, conversation with God. Our sin divides us from God; it kills us, Genesis 3. It stops the conversation. That is why, as a rule, we no longer hear the voice of God. Yet in the midst of the curse of death God promised a deliverer, Genesis 3:15.
Why was Israel created? Israel was created to be the people group through whom the seed of the woman would come to deliver us, Genesis 12:3. Why did He locate them in the Land of Canaan? Look at a map of the world. At the time that Israel was created, 1400 B.C., it was literally the crossroads of the world. Anyone going from Europe to Asia or Africa by land would go through Palestine. Anyone traveling from Asia to Europe of Africa by land would go through Palestine. Anyone traveling from Africa to Asia or Europe by land would travel through Palestine. God’s desire was to restore the communication with Himself through the seed of the woman, who would be a descendant of Abraham and of David, 2 Samuel 7:12-16. Israel was to be the people group through whom the seed would come and through whom the rest of the nations could re-enter into a relationship with God. They were to be the ones who would point the Gentiles, non-Israelites, to God. They were geographically strategically located to do just that! They were equipped through the law to do just that! He brought them out of Egypt to Canaan just for that purpose, Ezekiel 20:9.
Why did God remove them from the land and then return them to the land? Instead of seeking the Lord, communicating with Him and sharing Him with the Gentiles, the Israelites sought the gods of the Gentiles, Ezekiel 20:9, 14, 22, 23, 32. So, God cut off communication with them because they would communicate with Gentile gods and not Him. Then He kicked them out of the land, but in so doing, He promised to bring them back after their repentance, Ezekiel 20: 41,42.
What does all of this have to do with His glory? It is His glory that we are to reflect. That is why we were created. Our sin diminished and killed the reflection of His glory. Jesus, God the Son, is the seed of the woman having come through the line of Abraham and of David. He came to crush the head of the serpent that He might restore our ability to communicate with God the Father through God the Spirit, when that communication is restored we then fulfill the purpose for which we are created, to reflect the image and glory of God! Am I in constant communication with Him so that I may reflect who He is? It is for this that I am created! It is for this that you are created! I cannot reflect Him if I keep myself from Him and pursue other gods. Oh Lord, I want to see Your glory, that I might enjoy You and being consumed by You, reflect you to others. Indeed, we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
1 CORINTHIANS 4
This is the glory of Christ: One day He will judge the motives of our hearts and each person’s praise will come to him from God. We can look at actions and try to determine whether that action was right or wrong. We have God’s law to use to evaluate that action. What we cannot determine is what motivated the person to that action. But Jesus can and does determine motives of the heart and will one day reveal them. He is indeed amazing in that He knows the motives of our hearts. Remember Jeremiah 17:9,10? “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.”
We are more than capable of self-deceit. Jesus cuts through all the trash of the twisted thinking of our hearts. If we let Him, He reveals our hearts to us, so that we might be changed. If we don’t let Him, He will reveal it to us on the day He comes. It is better to have it revealed now and to change than when He returns. Can we truthfully say to others, “I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me?” Jesus alone can cut through the trash of our hearts and change them. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
No comments:
Post a Comment