Resetting the Compass

 

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Listen to what the Lord is saying:  “Stand up and state your case against me.  Let the mountains and hills be called to witness your complaints.  And now, O mountains, listen to the Lord’s complaint!  He has a case against his people.  He will bring charges against Israel.  “O my people, what have I done to you?  What have I done to make you tired of me?  Answer me!  For I brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from slavery.  I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to help you.  Don’t you remember, my people, how King Balak of Moab tried to have you cursed and how Balaam son of Beor blessed you instead?  And remember your journey from Acacia Grove to Gilgal, when I, the Lord, did everything I could to teach you about my faithfulness.”  What can we bring to the Lord?  Should we bring him burnt offerings?  Should we bow before God Most High with offerings of yearling calves?  Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?  Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?  No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:  to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

The prophet speaks a word from Heaven’s courts to Israel, particularly Jerusalem, about their failure to honor the blessings they had received by God’s mercy and miraculous leading, from the time they left the bondage of being Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt until they were given Canaan land as God’s promise of continued blessing.  At every step God had blessed and, in the end, Jerusalem fell into lip service instead of genuine worship.  They offered sacrifices of bulls and rams by the herd, but with their lives they ignored the weightier issue of living life in full dedication to God’s will.  Three hundred years prior, Israel’s chronicler recorded the nation’s responsibility for resetting their national compass:

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.  2 Chronicles 7:14

Now, as a last ditch offer of mercy, the Lord reminds Israel of their covenant requirements through the prophet Micah.  It was time to reset the national compass.

Today is Inauguration Day for the presidency of our nation.  It is a quadrennial occurrence of a (supposedly) peaceful transfer of power from an outgoing administration’s chief to the next.  To this moment it has been anything but serene and reassuring.  It has been more than a rocky road; it has been a war zone, complete with storming the halls of government.

Inauguration speeches by a new leader traditionally carry hope for the future, and a call to unselfish patriotism, with humility towards one another.  It is my fervent wish that this transition of power, however uncertain to this point, will teach us the lesson we need to learn – God is not mocked…whatever we have been sowing, both nationally as a people, and personally in our lives…we will continue to reap.

Toward that end, let us remember that doing what is right, not party affiliation and power, but righteousness and justice, with humility before God and with each other, is our only hope of living-out what it is going to take to have our land healed of its divisiveness and anger.

There is no other way for any nation under God.

For You Today

If there is anger in your inner being it must be rooted-out; this is what children of God do. 

And the way to begin the “rooting” out of anger is to confess it in prayer, and then resolve to act towards all, as Abraham Lincoln spoke to a nation suffering the division of civil war:

With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.

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   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on this text see America // Israel and Do WHAT?      

 

The Humility of a King

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Friday, October 20, 2017

“When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.  He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives.  That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees.  This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens.  It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way.  And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel.  

Deuteronomy 17:18-20^(NLT)

Before the nation of Israel even crossed the threshold from the wilderness into the Promised Land, God laid out instructions for the kind of king they must have if they chose a new leader. 

Familiar with Scripture 

The new king would have to personally copy the Scriptures and keep the scroll with him every day, reading and understanding it as a lifestyle for a lifetime.

Familiar with Humility

The Scripture, read daily and taken intimately as a guide is the best prophylactic for pride.  When a person becomes king the rarified air of state dinners, cameras flashing, people bowing, motorcades, and all the pomp and circumstance associated with power can lead to thinking you’re above everyone.  In fact, however, that only works against the reality that a servant must find a way to be under those he serves.  That, not budgets, treaties and managing the underlings, is the real task of a king.

From my perspective, I do not see much of that kind of leadership in our world these days.  I see plenty of posturing, jawing, and lording it over those with less power, but what I do not see is the kind of character and integrity of a leader in Scripture’s instructions.  Indeed, Scripture is relegated to a manipulative tool when speaking to those groups who are “religious” and band together to manipulate their own brand of power-brokering. 

There are bright spots in leaders from time to time, so this is not a blanket indictment of all modern leaders, but the modern prototype for a king seems to be brash, forceful and proud, with a decided arrogance that uses a lot of the personal pronoun to evaluate whatever’s going on.

This is a formula diametrically-opposite of that which ensures a crown will endure for many generations.

Contrary to what my grandchildren think, I am not old enough to have observed the likes of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  They may have been their generation’s version of today’s leaders; history doesn’t paint them so, but rather as more humble and servant-like.  May their tribe be found again.

For You Today

Who and What are under the crown of your leader?

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

Crabby Kids

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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said.  Then the Lord’s anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.  Then the people screamed to Moses for help, and when he prayed to the Lord, the fire stopped.  After that, the area was known as Taberah (which means “the place of burning”), because fire from the Lord had burned among them there.  Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt.  And the people of Israel also began to complain.  “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed.  “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt.  And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted.  But now our appetites are gone.  All we ever see is this manna!” Numbers 11:1-6^(NLT)

The Lord had some crabby kids in the wilderness.  God had sent Moses to get them out of the hands of their Egyptian captors and lead them to freedom.  The trip, even for a huge group, several million strong would have been only a few weeks.  However, their crabby complaining stretched the journey to forty years.  I know what Moses must have felt; I once drove straight through from Florida to New York with three siblings under 12 in the back seat of my car!  During that trip my crabby kids showed me the real meaning of Bill and Gloria Gaither’s song:  He Touched Me.

Churlish behavior is the consummate definition of ingratitude for what you have.  Humankind has made that something of an art form, never being satisfied for more than a nanosecond over what God gives.  Impatience in the wilderness makes you crabby!

In the wilderness the people churned-up complaints against Moses for a lack of meat and veggies.  They wanted leeks, onions and garlic; God provided them manna from Heaven.  Where once they worried about eating at all, as soon as God gave them a food source that completely met their need, they graduated to demanding five-star dining.  Thus it has always been for us.  Those of Adam’s race are not thankful by nature.  

·       Adam and Eve weren’t thankful with a perfect garden environment and a perfect relationship with God; they had to have the kind of knowledge God possessed. 

·       Cain was not satisfied with all the produce of the ground, he killed his brother because his brother possessed favor with God, and he wanted that! 

·       King David wasn’t happy with all the riches and power God had given into his life; he had to add another man’s wife to his collection.

John D. Rockefeller was the world’s richest man in the last decade of the 19^th century.  When asked once, "How much money is enough money?" He replied, "Just a little bit more."[2]  Abraham Lincoln was walking down the street in Washington with his two boys in tow, both of them screaming their lungs out.  A passer-by asked him, what’s the matter, Mr. President?  It is said Abe’s answer was:  What’s the matter?  What’s the matter with the whole world…I have two children and three walnuts!

Most of us will never know the riches of a Rockefeller, or the power and prestige of a King David or Abraham Lincoln.  We will never have a perfect environment like Adam and Eve.  And if those rich, powerful, and blessed people could be churlish and ungrateful in all they were given, what makes us think a little more than we now have will make us any happier?

If the task of parenting were to alter course a wee bit in our culture, from teaching children they can have/be anything they want (which is the nauseating phrase I hear – and have also used), to:  you can be exactly what God wants you to be if you listen and obey Him…it seems contentedness would be a lot more common in the human family.

For You Today

As the children of Israel learned in the wilderness, longing for the things of your former captivity only makes you cry; onions have a way of doing that!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy:  Pixabay.com

[2] New World Encyclopedia