Entitlement Mythology 101

 

Thursday, February 24, 2022

“Listen, O Israel!  Today you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land belonging to nations much greater and more powerful than you.  They live in cities with walls that reach to the sky!  The people are strong and tall—descendants of the famous Anakite giants.  You’ve heard the saying, ‘Who can stand up to the Anakites?’  But recognize today that the Lord your God is the one who will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire to destroy them.  He will subdue them so that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out, just as the Lord has promised.  “After the Lord your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has given us this land because we are such good people!’  No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way.  It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Deuteronomy 9:1-5

Perched on the eve of conquering Palestine, the fledgling Israelite nation was warned by God to keep perspective on the source of the greatness they were about to experience.  God told them to not get puffed-up like a proud peacock over their supposed goodness, or integrity; their victory was a gift.

Many nations and many people have written their own brand of history.  It is said the winners of wars will tell the story of their own greatness, while truth goes begging.  Whether we like it or not, truth writes its own story, without regard to any other version. 

Scripture warns in many ways against pride.  Solomon’s words tell it plainly: 

Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.  Proverbs 16:18

Claiming personal greatness is a symptom of the pride that goes before a fall.  Pride is a bulldozer paving the way down the slope of disaster.  The history of God’s special people is written over and again, with alarmingly similar results:

·       First stamp:  God’s great hand of favor clears the path for their success.

·       Second stamp:  Within a few generations (sometimes less), the truth is forgotten, and God’s greatness is claimed for the pride of a new leader. 

·       Third stamp:  God takes Israel to the woodshed (captivity, plagues, etc.).

·       Fourth stamp:  Repeat steps 1, 2, and 3.

American history bears unmistakeable parallels to Israel, of the way God blesses a nation.  That much is hardly questioned to my mind.  The troubling part of that statement, is, that we also bear the marks of the rubber stamp history of Israel. 

There is a sense of entitlement in the land today which smacks of the pride of privilege.  It’s not just white privilege that plagues, it is the endemic arrogance of any privilege.  Ethnic privilege, perceived greatness, dominant history, and any other sense of entitled platform is a house of cards awaiting collapse.  To borrow from James Russell Lowell’s thinking about truth ever being led to the scaffold, and wrong enthroned, in America, it seems, humility has been beaten with the shame brush, and pride lifted to the throne.  We are living in a false myth!

For You Today

Matthew Henry wrote a commentary on the entire Bible.  When it came to the Proverbs’ warning about pride, he gave us a Humility-101 kind of last word in this simple sentence:

Therefore let us not fear the pride of others, but greatly fear pride in ourselves.[1]

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

[1] Title image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

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[1] Matthew Henry Commentary on Proverbs 16:18

Looking Back to Go Forward

 

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.  How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!  For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.  For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me.  He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him.  His mighty arm has done tremendous things!  He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.  He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.  He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful.  For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”  Luke 1:46-55

There are constants in life which, if honestly viewed, can guide us into truth.  Calling on my somewhat limited grasp of mathematics, I recall a principle of equations that remains stable.  If A = 1, then A is always 1. 

Mary understood that. 

Mary looked back over the history of generation to generation and her soul leaped within her at the mercy, miracles and justice with which God has ruled this universe.  And Mary connected the dots.  If, in mercy, might, and justice, God saw fit to lead her into the world’s brightest spotlight from an obscure little village, she was going to count on the principle of looking back to go forward.  She would trust the Lord.

And here’s how she connected that set of dots:

For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”  Luke 1:55

The key word is “forever”.  Mary understood that circumstances, and the way humans evaluate circumstances, are as changeable as the wind.  God, on the other hand, is as constant as the A = 1 principle; He changes not!^{(Malachi 3:6)}

In the connecting the dots ambit, looking at signposts in your history gives you a sense of the course you’ve charted.  If you chart a course to, say, Omaha, Nebraska, and it was not done with a faulty compass and map, and, if you’ve faithfully followed  that course, today you’re closer than you were yesterday.  It’s the same in charting your course to follow God’s way.  To Israel in captivity, after they’d messed-up supremely, God said through the prophet:

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.  I will be found by you,” says the Lord.  Jeremiah 29:13-14a

For us, this means the “A” of our equation is always trust the Lord, and the “1” of the result is you will find Him. 

The picture on your screen has a little white dot, which are actually two large planets (Saturn and Jupiter) in conjunction.  I looked up in the dark sky at 6:27pm Monday night to see this phenomenon.  It was predicted based on science, mathematics, and because, history has proved it over and again.  And it was there.  And I snapped the picture with my little Android phone’s camera.  I did that, not because it IS the so-called Christmas Star of Bethlehem…it’s two planets, in real time, reflecting the light God created so long ago.  And, like the cross I wear when I preach God’s Word each Sunday, although it isn’t the blood-stained cross of Golgotha, it is a picture of remembering the course God charted for restoring relationship between Himself and myself.

In just that way, God says, look back at what I’ve done, and know I will be the same tomorrow as I was yesterday and today.^{(Hebrews 13:8)}

Mary knew that, and she sang from the depths of her being the song of praise for the deep trials she knew was ahead.  And she charted her course to walk right into it!

For You Today

Been through a tough one this year?  As tough as Mary’s year?  The whole of her world changed when the angel talked about God’s plan for her life.  Adulteress and Blasphemer, the neighbors would say.  Leaving home to run for Egyptian refuge to escape Jesus being slaughtered was in the near future.  Still, Mary pondered all these wonders, and bowed the knee in grateful remembrance of the God who taught her to look back so she could go forward.  Sound like a plan?

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

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Title image:  Russell Brownworth (own work) 12/21/2020 conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter   

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

 

The History of Mankind (slightly abridged version)

 

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Psalm 99:1-9

The Lord is king!  Let the nations tremble!  He sits on his throne between the cherubim.  Let the whole earth quake!  The Lord sits in majesty in Jerusalem, exalted above all the nations.  Let them praise your great and awesome name.  Your name is holy!  Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established fairness.  You have acted with justice and righteousness throughout Israel.  Exalt the Lord our God!  Bow low before his feet, for he is holy!  Moses and Aaron were among his priests; Samuel also called on his name.  They cried to the Lord for help, and he answered them.  He spoke to Israel from the pillar of cloud, and they followed the laws and decrees he gave them.  O Lord our God, you answered them.  You were a forgiving God to them, but you punished them when they went wrong.  Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain in Jerusalem, for the Lord our God is holy!

What is wrong with the title of this devotion?  Short answer – everything!  From the title you would expect the focus to be on humanity; that is certainly not the Psalmists’ perspective.  Everything about Psalm 99 points to the character of God; hardly are man’s exploits in view.  Just look at the wording:

·       The LORD is king…HE sits on his throne…in majesty…exalted

·       YOUR name is holy…YOU have established justice

·       HE answered…HE spoke…HE gave

·       YOU were a forgiving God…YOU punished them when they went wrong.

·       EXALT and WORSHIP GOD…for the LORD our God is holy!

Notwithstanding my own criticism of the title, I stand by it as appropriate, because the real (unabridged) version of the history of man is all about the loving God who created us.  You cannot, with any kind of claim to integrity, separate God’s loving character from any mention of humanity; we are entirely connected, entwined in an infinite number of ways, and in a way that includes everything eternal.  And so, our history is rightly connected to His nature; we belong to Him.

The Psalmist’s reference to the wilderness wanderings of God’s children, how God gave them their marching orders, and how they went wrong, after having agreed to do right, and how God handed out justice, punishing their wrong…it is all a microcosm of the unabridged version of humankind’s history. 

Of course, it all started in the mind of God in eternal ages past.  However, our memory begins in the Garden of Eden.  God created Adam and Eve perfectly, placed them in a perfect environment, gave them perfect instructions how to live, and offered a perfect relationship, based upon perfect lovingkindness and providence unbound by strings of any kind.  We get it that there was no racism, murder, or COVID19 in God’s plan.

Then, freedom became too much of a temptation, and Adam and Eve left the reservation.  It began with questioned faith about God’s love and care for them; the enemy whispered questions about God’s character and ways; the couple reached for what wasn’t good for them in an effort to quiet the doubt within, and, believing Lucifer’s lies, in an attempt at fixing what they sensed to be broken, they found fear at the prospect of God knowing what they’d done[1].  Man’s fixing produced fear, and the fall has been repeating itself ever since.  And so has the forgiveness of God for the fallen, sinful children of the first couple! 

This is the slightly abridged version of the history of man.  For the rest of the story, in all of it’s sordid and splendid detail, buy the book….THE Book

Let’s Pray

Father, we understand wilderness…we spend so much of our time there…time better spent with you.  Help us change history…that which lies ahead of us.  Help us to place our heart’s and mind’s focus on you, the place and face where we find faith and peace.

For You Today

The best thing about history is when we focus more on HIS-story, and learn from our messy failings where true peace and meaning lie waiting for those hungering and thirsting for it[2].

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on Psalm 99 see The Case for Worship and When Mercy Outweighs Justice

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[1] Genesis 3:8-10

[2] God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.  Matthew 5:6

Getting Angry & Ugly

[1]

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Watch Devotion VIDEO here

In an interview last year theologian N.T. Wright was answering a question about the issue of gay and lesbian rights. His answer included a little history lesson he’d seen on TV the previous night.  

The question’s set-up said that the government is on the (LGBTQ) side, and many people saying if you don’t support it you’re on the wrong side of history.  The question: who said in 1956, ‘History is on our side and we will bury you’?

Wright’s comment was, one of the contestants got the answer right: It was Nikita Khrushchev. When people claim, ‘We’re going with the flow of history,’ that’s just a rhetorical smokescreen. So, that’s where I am.[2]

Increasingly this year’s primary election season is getting more angry and ugly; that is, angrier and uglier than usual.  I’ve never been a fan of political wrangling; I don’t see it as even marginally-interesting, much less an art form. 

But this year is a special kind of ugly!

You can turn on the news channels at any time of day or night, and the lead story (if it’s not about mass-shootings) will be the newest most outlandish thing Donald Trump said, and the backlash from the rest of twelve thousand other candidates.

And most of the vitriolic name-calling has Mr. Trump on one side, and everyone else, including the so-called “objective” news anchors shouting back from the other side. 

And I do mean shouting…all at the same time.  One news show I watched had six political analysts hollering at each other at 120 decibels, sounding like magpies over a road kill.  It hurts my head! 

And still, with all the “shock-and-awe” of political angry-and-ugly, Mr. Trump’s candidacy grows in popularity and momentum.  One set of “reasoning” as to why his popularity grows is Mr. Trump resonates with what the American (Republican-party) voters see as long-overdue pushback against attacks on the Western way of life by Muslims.

For many of the analysts the driving point is that Mr. Trump’s continued ramping-up of the heat and anger in the free-for-all that is American contemporary politics, is the kind of demagoguery that taps into the fear in people’s minds created by the recent flurry of attacks.  Pushback is a powerful motivator, especially if someone else is willing to be the one to do it for you.

Now, this isn’t about Democrats and Republicans – it’s all about what’s in our hearts and minds, and who (or WHO) we are willing to trust.  Do we trust the political analysts, and go with the flow of history….or do we trust God’s view?

When Israel’s first king (Saul) messed up so badly that God sent the prophet Samuel to pick a replacement, Samuel saw David’s brothers first.  The first one he saw looked good to him and he imagined he’d be a great head of state.  This was based on what he saw.

God saw things differently:

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”   

1 Samuel 16:7^(NLT)

Every election is a spiritual referendum; there are great things at stake.  Not the least of these is whether you will listen to your head, heart or God’s revealed truth (His Word) as you enter the voting booth.

As followers of Jesus Christ none of us can afford to let “angry & ugly” carry even a part of our day.

For You Today

Fear in our hearts will sometimes yell so loudly we cannot hear anything God says; take some time to get away from the yelling, fear and commotion.  Let there be room for the still, small voice.

Chew on that out on the Rocky Road today…and have a great day!

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[1] Title image:  By DonkeyHotey, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Watch the interview here:  NT Wright on Gay Marriage