On the morning of 8 June, 1815, a resurgent Napoleon Bonaparte, recently escaped from exile in Elba, and back in France, commanded a formidable French Army. That came perilously close to defeating the Allied armies of Wellington and Blucher at Waterloo. However, by sunset 8 June, 1815, a defeated Napoleon fled as fugitive from Allied justice. And, when found, went into exile in St. Helena till his death.
King David had a similar high on the morning he escorted God’s Ark into Jerusalem. Then experienced an equally devastating low when:
David’s response can help us turn an otherwise sure defeat into victory. He teaches us that an initial negative reaction to unexpected adversity need not be harmful IF: anger at God is only a temporary response. God knows how badly we can react when bushwhacked by unexpected stress. Uzzah’s death left everyone in the throng:
Killing a devoted servant guilty only of zeal for God seemed unjust, improper and merciless! How many of us have had similar reactions when:
Like the disciples on Lake Galilee when:
Didn’t he understand the crisis? Had he become so exhausted by the day’s activities that he jeopardized them all? Was he TOO tired to care? How possibly could he be so unaware of them with they so devoted to him? Anger. Annoyance. Anguish…we’ve all tempted to show when surprised by trouble! The nearest disciple kneed his way to the recumbent, fast-asleep Teacher. Shaking him awake, he desperately shouted, “Master, don’t you care if we perish?” End Part I
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A second practical lesson learned from David’s first attempt to bring the Ark into Jerusalem:
Christians Are Held to God’s Higher Standard. Whether or not we rise to it. God won’t command a deeper discipleship based on being penalized. Even now, we can choose a shallower one, with fewer costs, and they less than what God charges committed believers. Hardpan response to Jesus will satisfy many people; briar and thorn response even more. But God expects good soil response in every believer because it’s the result of learning from Jesus. That’s the message of Matthew 12:38-45. God’s people, schooled in his word, forgiven by Jesus and disciplined to Christ’s higher standards! For example, most people don’t know why Christ’s:
But Christians MUST…even if they DON’T…and if we DON’T, God holds us accountable for what we MUST DO. With Samuel Rutherford all believers may say:
But the little we do SEE and KNOW fuels our constant desire to see and know more still. An important point. Each new truth about Jesus welcomed and incorporated builds accountability. Every new truth rejected diminishes accountability. Do we want a Knowledge of Christ that makes us increasingly fruitful for him; or one subject to our human limitations? Fini Consider the first of two practical lessons from II Samuel 6:1-19.
God’s Presence Can Be Dangerous. The death of Uzzah convinced David of his personal unworthiness to host the Ark. However, Obed-Edom the Levite welcomed it, delighting in the symbol of God’s Presence. The different responses reflected the situation before Mt. Sinai in Exodus 20:18-26. The spectacle on the mountain proved more than the erstwhile slaves could tolerate:
All originating on Sinai:
Since they couldn’t feel comfortable seeing and experiencing the awesome spectacle, they:
That meant their:
Matthew 16:21-28 reveals the New Testament counterpart of those two views. Of all the responses we can offer Christ’s message, the good soil of Matthew 13:8, 23 symbolizes the self-denial Jesus demanded in Matthew 16:21-28. While a terror to those who can’t imagine sacrificing the right to self-rule EVEN to Jesus, those who accept the challenge find peace with God and control of self under Christ’s benevolent rule. In the experience of self-denial, however poorly accomplished, or permanently achieved, we discover with Paul, that “hiding” ourselves in Christ now, Colossians 3:1-4, results one day in being counted worthy of personally appearing with Jesus in the New Jerusalem. End Part II Two Bible stories, both from the Old Testament, teach a common Biblical principle and helpful practical lessons. In this blog, the principle: God always holds his people to a higher standard. Genesis 34 and II Samuel 6 offer the contexts.
Genesis 34 relates the desire of Hamor, the Amorite, to unite his son Shechem in marriage with Jacob’s daughter Dinah. A perfectly understandable decision on his part, offering his people significant advantages: the greater number of Amorites would soon absorb the lesser number of Hebrews and, with them, their possessions. As Hebrew history proved, it took little effort by heathen people to paganize the Hebrews. However, the arrangement would be as disastrous for the Hebrews as positive for the Amorites. It would demolish God’s choice of the Hebrews as his vessel bringing the Savior of the world as their Messiah. Jacob didn’t rise to God’s standard. His sons, for an inferior reason, DID. II Samuel 6 relates King David’s decision to bring the Ark of God into Jerusalem, a brilliant, unspoken policy statement. It put God:
However, the King discovered that the right decision implemented in the wrong way:
Philistine lords:
Knowing God’s instructions, the Hebrew priests failed to correct the king’s mistake. He would have complied if told. The priests didn’t rise to God’s standard. End Part I We have a saying that only those who have experienced a problem can give us the soundest counsel in resolving the one we face. Which needs some revision.
True; it’s a blessed encouragement to be able to say, “I know you can overcome this situation, for I did when facing it.” That’s sympathy. It’s another, and infinitely more blessed to say, “I didn’t and don’t have your problem, but I can empower you to surmount it.” That’s empathy—a grasp of the issue, not by personally experiencing it, but by a compassion that fuels recovery, whatever faced. The former person can cry with us; the latter can remove the source of our tears. In every situation, Jesus excelled in being the latter person. He had no sin, but he loved sinners SO MUCH! While he overcame temptation, he SO loves all who don’t. In this regard, the mere admission of guilt and repentance suffices to gain God’s forgiveness. However, if sympathy is all we can give the sufferer, because we remain strapped inside the same, or similar problem, GIVE IT. Don’t withhold it because we can’t give empathy. Trust God to provide the needy person with the grace we can’t, the power we haven’t yet accessed, the assurance of conquest we haven’t yet experienced. The Holy Spirit excels in all such cases, admitting the value of our pitiful effort, then bringing to completion by God’s grace what we never can. Be faithful in providing what we can. For so much discipleship consists of doing what we can, overlooking what we can’t. Refusing to think we can’t help a person succeed in defeating what we haven’t yet achieved. For all teaching and preaching consists of God’s Truth, whether or not we have processed it; of God’s overcoming grace, whether or not we have experienced it; of restoration to fellowship with God, even when we find we remain- alienated from him. A vital witness doesn’t depend on our personal embodiment of God’s truth, but of its proclamation. For the very articulation frees the Spirit of God to work his will! Now…a personal note. When passing people on the street on morning walks over the past months, I’ve been saying, “God Bless,” instead of “Have a good day.” Because the very words, “God Bless”, have the ability to LIFT people! And I’ve found that more than a few will return the benediction as given. A shared awareness of GOD results. One morning Charles Kuralt visited a prairie dog town in Montana near Greycliff Creek. (Lewis and Clark had unsuccessfully tried to drown a prairie dog town on their Journey of Discovery.) Kuralt noted how the dogs interacted with others, to him always in a positive way. He then superficially observed that they were truer to their nature than most humans to theirs. Charles Kuralt’s America, 210.
Which isn’t hard to believe. Wild creatures and their offspring have only instinct, not will, to direct them. By instinct they originate, mature in and complete their life span by the genetic code God designed for them. For human genetics, however, God gave choice, with a will to decide it; choice, with a learned value system to determine it; choice, with the dreaded freedom to make wrong as well as right decisions. It takes only instincts for grizzles to be ferocious, male lions to kill hyenas, monkeys to swing from trees. But it takes reason and effort for humans to change bad into good habits; rebellion against God into obedience to God; criminal behavior into obedience to law. Once a creature, always a creature, however improved by association with mortals, its superior being. To turn from self-centered egotism to Christ-focused self-denial, however, takes conviction fueling conversion that gives the new man (human) the opportunity to incrementally become different in any way necessary to be like Christ—the always and ever Superior of all mortals, however superior to creatures we remain. |
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