Monday, November 13, 2017

What Were You Thinking?

Monday, November 13, 2017
But they kept testing and rebelling against God Most High.  They did not obey his laws.  They turned back and were as faithless as their parents.  They were as undependable as a crooked bow.  They angered God by building shrines to other gods; they made him jealous with their idols.  When God heard them, he was very angry, and he completely rejected Israel.  Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.  He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured; he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.  He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword, because he was so angry with his own people—his special possession.  Their young men were killed by fire; their young women died before singing their wedding songs.  Their priests were slaughtered, and their widows could not mourn their deaths..  Psalm 78:56-64(NLT)
The re-telling of Israel’s history is magnificent and painful.  The Psalmist begins with the nation’s beginning, release from Egypt and the Exodus.  From there he traces the roller-coaster pattern of ups and downs as the people of God alternately walk in faith, followed by blind unbelief and blatant disobedience to the God who saved them. 
The people of God constantly made a farce of being God’s chosen, and whenever I read the account of our spiritual ancestors I am always consumed by two thoughts: 
#1. What were you thinking?
And then I’m caught short by the other thought:
#2. Who am I kidding…I’m just like them!
God understands us more than we understand ourselves, which is why He had Moses write ALL of Israel’s history…victories when they obeyed and followed God, as well as the crushing defeats and consequences when they wandered away from Him in unbelief.  We get the heroes and utter failures, warts and all!
And God had Paul the Apostle write down the reason for this full disclosure:
These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.  1 Corinthians 10:11(NLT)
When you take these facts together you understand that God is not interested in PR, political correctness, or what humans think about the way God acted in history.  Rather, God is interested in how humans respond to Him in obedience and service.
That doesn’t much resonate with today’s emphasis on everybody getting to be soothed with having all their tender feelings stroked, and the ultra-goofiness of having every silly thought or lifestyle more than tolerated…even validated…but God isn’t interested in all that.  God is still interested in how we will honor, respect, and serve the One who created us, and died for the forgiveness of our sins.
If that offends, we can only offer the same condolence we render to the childishness of Israel…what were you thinking?

For You Today

It is better to serve God faithfully, to heed the warning of Scripture’s full-disclosure of the sins of human giants like Moses, David and Peter, than to repeat their mistakes!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

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