Yearly Archives: 2014

Talk to the Rock

LOVE IT!

I was reading this morning the account of the Israelites finding themselves thirsty and miserable in the desert of Zin (hmm… could have been the Wilderness of Sin?)…wishing they were dead, blaming Moses for their plight, looking back to Egypt as if it had been Eden. “Why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?”  No grain, no figs, no vines, no pomegranates, AND no water to drink.

Did they think to ask for water?

“Ye have not, because ye ask not.” James 4:2

It seems so obvious when I read their story.  All they had to do was ask.  God had brought them here. He would take care of them.  He was orchestrating the paths of their lives to give them opportunity to see His power at work on their behalf.  Avoiding the desert wasn’t the point. Knowing God in the desert was.  He wanted them to know Him, to trust Him, to see His goodness and to love Him.

Instead they complained about their ‘misfortunes’, they blamed Moses’ leadership, and they entertained thoughts of returning to bondage!  All these reactions were characteristic of their underlying problem: They failed to trust God.  Their hearts were hard toward the One who had promised to be all they would ever need—the Great I AM.  He was the only One who could bring them safely through this wilderness into the land of plenty and of rest.   Instead of hanging onto Him for dear life, they clung to their own notions of what life should be and complained and resisted and dreamed of relief from this awful desert God had led them into!

Their refusal to believe that God was with them and for them and committed to doing them good all their days, cost them dearly.  Their generation would never reach the Promised Land; (only their children would live to see it).  They would never rest in plenty and in peace. They would never know lasting joy.

Their hard hearts kept them wandering for a lifetime in the wilderness as one by one they died there.  Pre-occupied with their discomfort and consumed with discontent, they failed to understand that God was training their hearts to trust Him, always, in everything. They thought much of themselves and very little of God; trusting their own thoughts, they ignored His. A people ‘who go astray in their heart, and [who] have not known my ways.’ was God’s evaluation of them. (Ps.95)

But God did not abandon them to die of thirst. Nor did He wait for them to ask for water (or they may have died of thirst!)  He instructed Moses: Get everybody together to watch.  Take your staff with you, and your brother, Aaron.  And “Tell the rock to yield its water”.  (Numbers 20:8)

Simple.  Talk to the rock.  Again the people would see God act on their behalf.  Again they would have opportunity to know their God and to trust Him.

Unfortunately, Moses strikes the rock instead of talking to it and foregoes living to enter the Promised Land himself.  But God does provide for His people.  There is water for everyone.

The significance of this incident at the ‘waters of Meribah’ becomes clearer in the New Testament.  For that rock symbolized God himself in the person of His Son.  He invites, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Jn.7:37,38

God’s answer for all we need is in Jesus, the ‘spiritual Rock’ from which we are to drink all our lives.  (I Cor.10:4)  In Him our roots are to sink down deep and draw up the water of salvation. (Col.2:6)  We were never meant to out grow our need of Him, only to grow up in Him as our roots grow down to abide in His love. From Him will come our life as His Spirit produces in us what we are helpless to produce ourselves.

We aren’t destined to thrash about complaining in a wilderness of unbelief—following wherever our thoughts may lead us.  We can talk to the Rock, yielding our thoughts to His and trusting Him to meet us in our need, whatever it may be.

And right here, right now, in the process of writing this post, I too see doubts and fears and raw unbelief in my own heart.  I may not be in a wilderness parched with thirst and thinking I’m about to die, but I know thoughts that rise laced with panic… “What’s going to happen to_______.”  And I thrash about in my mind considering options…what to do. what to say. how to solve this problem.  how to answer that query for counsel… ‘What is the Lord doing? Why has it come to this? What now?’  I too doubt.  I too give more credence to my own thoughts sometimes than to His!  And I too need to come to the Rock and trust that here is all I need for life and godliness…right now, in the Rock.

Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer;  from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Ps.61:1-3

–LS

Listen here to a beautiful song drawn from Psalm 61:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD18ra41oKo

…when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock…

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to his own glory and excellence…” II Pet.1:3

You are complete (fulfilled, filled up) in Him. Col.2:10

“Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;” Deut.8:15,16

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;  let us make a joyful noise to the ROCK of our salvation!…For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” Ps.95:1,7

This God–his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.  For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God? Ps.18:30-31

“Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” Jn.16:24

Cause for Celebration—Grace at Work!

LIVE IT!

Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast!
I Cor.5:7-8

The good thing about a study in grace is that as it unfolds (and you realize with a sinking feeling how not-gracious you are) there is grace to repent and to be forgiven and to value grace all the more.

That has been my week in a nutshell.

First I was looking at the indicators of a life where grace is in place.  People who have been smitten by grace…

  • forgive readily, no strings attached.  They remember what they’ve been forgiven.
  • give cheerfully, and generously—of their time, their talents, their possessions, their very lives!
  • rejoice unenvyingly when others are blessed (whether they ‘deserve’ it or not)
  • love liberally with no expectation of return
  • repent continually.  They are more aware of their own sins than their neighbor’s.
  • live humbly. Their confidence and boasting are all in Christ.  They’re just glad to be included in His family!

Then, I was feeling mighty pitiful…for just a bit.  Repentance was needed.

A person may try to be ‘holy’, by doing or not doing.  A person can think herself righteous as compared with her neighbor… But when grace is missing it is hard to deny.  And grace received is the stuff of heaven’s rejoicing! “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which [think they?] need no repentance.” Lk.15:7

Round about this point the Spirit nudged me with this song… averting my gaze from the truth about me, apart from Jesus, to the truth about me because of Jesus!

Every debt that you’ve ever had
Has been paid up in full by the grace of the Lord.
Be ye glad, be ye glad, be ye glad

 

I’m Glad!

And I found myself in Ephesians 1 relishing: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…”  (and beginning a Bible memory project!)

But lastly came the reminder that among the spiritual disciplines helpful to our growth in Christ is that of CELEBRATION.  Hmphf.  Not something I’m a natural at. Give me solitude, study, and silence any day over this! Give me something I can DO to be holy.  But in celebration we relinquish our conscientious pre-occupation with a thousand worries and self-appointed ‘disciplines’ and prove our reliance to be on God for our salvation.  It is the Sabbath principle at work (or should I say, play?) 

And I realized I’d come full-circle, back to the celebration of the true Passover Lamb whose blood makes clean.  He invites me to sit and eat—‘this is my Body broken for you’’  to feast on Him, to partake of His grace:“My grace is sufficient for you.” 

It was as though He were saying… I did not call you because you were good. Here is my grace—rest in it.  Celebrate Me.  Your sin is no deterrent to grace, your weakness no shame at My Table.  You will not overcome by trying harder or working smarter.   Grace doesn’t come that way.  You cannot even crucify yourself.  Flesh cannot conquer flesh.  Freedom is not something you ‘figure out’, attain by discipline, or earn by hard work.  It is not by might or power that freedom will come but by yielding to My Spirit.   Come, sit, eat.

All this rests in the symbolism of the Passover Lamb. On the Cross His work was finished.  We derive the benefit by resting in it.  We live by being forgiven…

And that has been the kaleidoscope of thoughts dazzling my mind’s eye this week—what a lead-up to Easter week it has been!

–LS

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Jn.6:53

“May grace and peace be multiplied to YOU in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” II Pet.1:2

P.S. I must share one more song.  Just can’t get enough of these lyrics. “We have a great High Priest—the perfect risen Lamb!  My life is hid with Christ on high—with Christ my Saviour and my God.”

Before the Throne of God

Before the Throne of God

———-
I’ve been feasting this week on the the good words of:

      Roy Hession: Be Filled Now (available online here: http://www.christianissues.biz/pdf-bin/sanctification/befillednow.pdf )

      J.I. Packer: God’s Words: Studies of Key Bible Themes (Baker,1992)

      John Piper: Future Grace (Multnomah,1995)

I can’t resist tucking in some precious quotes below…

re:The Spirit as Comforter: (Hession: Be Filled Now)

We seem to appreciate most intensely the Spirit’s ministry as Comforter, when, having become cold and out of touch with God, we try to get back to Him by ‘works.’ How natural it is for us to imagine that if we have got away from Him by committing sin, we shall come back to Him by doing good. And so we promise ourselves we will try harder, we set ourselves higher goals, we seek to do more for God or even to spend longer on our devotions. All these things are right, of course, but in as much as we so often do not attain those goals, we only end by burdening ourselves with additional self-reproach and an added sense of failure. We become tense in our efforts to improve, and condemned because we cannot succeed. We have come to experience what Paul did, when he said, ‘The commandment, which was ordained to life (if I could attain to it), I found to be unto death (because I failed to do so),’ and if we go farther along this road, we shall be in the same place of despair that he came to when he said, ‘O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ (Rom 7:10 and 24).

What a relief it is when the Holy Spirit points us, as He did Paul, away from our work to Another’s work, the finished work of Christ for us on the Cross, whereby we see that the work has been done for us, the distance between us and God bridged and peace made! The Spirit bids us cease from trying to get peace by our efforts, and to come to Jesus as a sinner and rest in what He had done. As we do so, the burden of striving and self-reproach slips away from our hearts, and the Comforter whispers peace to our hearts.

——————-
——————-

(Roy Hession: Be Filled Now)
It may be asked how do we get this new sight of Jesus as and when we need it? Not by trying to get it, nor even, I suggest, by praying for it, but rather by telling God we have not got it. Let us not dissipate our energies for the time being anywhere else but in this one direction. Tell Him you are not seeing Jesus, tell Him you are in bad shape, that you are not free, that you have not peace. Tell Him you are struggling to get by your efforts what deep down you know is a gift, but that you are struggling none the less. Tell Him that today you have not this sight of Jesus, His Blood and His victory that you had yesterday. Make no effort to get it, just tell Him you have not got it. Then allow Him to show you why you do not have it. He may show you dark and unsuspected things, but say yes to Him. All this is what is meant by going to the feet of Jesus, to the foot of His Cross. Such phrases may sound like cliches to some, but they express an awesome and hallowed experience to others. It is there that the Blood of Jesus avails for you. And you will not have been long at His feet before the Holy Spirit arises with healing in His wings, and gives you to see all you need to see of Jesus, and to possess all you need to possess of His fullness.

Re:The life of grace is a life of freedom…(Packer, God’s Words)

1. “…the Christian under grace is freed from the hopeless necessity of trying to commend himself to God by perfect law-keeping. Now he lives by being forgiven, and so is free at every point in his life to fail (as inevitably he does in fact, again and again) –and, having failed, to pick himself up where he fell, to seek and find God’s pardon, and to start again. Pride, our natural disposition, which is self-protective, self righteous and vainglorious, will either refuse to admit failure at all or refuse to try again, lest the trauma of failing be repeated; but the humility of the man who lives by being forgiven knows no such inhibitions….daily…his shortcomings are forgiven and his joy restored.” (Packer, 106)

2.“Moreover, the Christian under grace is free from sin’s dominion…not only is righteousness (law-keeping) both possible and prescribed fro Christians, but it is also a fact that no Christian can go on sinning as before, for union with Christ has changed his nature so that now his heart (his inner man) desires righteousness as before it desired sin, and only obedience to God can satisfy his deepest inner craving.  He hates the sin that he finds in himself, and gets no pleasure from lapsing into it.  Such is the state of mind of the man who is reed from sin’s dominion…He knows that his freedom has ennobled him and brought hi both the desire and the strength for right living, and for this he is endlessly thankful.”(Packer,107)

3.“Finally, the Christian under grace is free from bondage to fear—fear, that is, of the unknown future, or of meeting God (as one day we all must do), or of being destroyed by hostile forces or horrific experiences of one sort or another.  He knows himself to be God’s child, adopted, beloved, secure, with his inheritance awaiting him and eternal joy guaranteed. He knows that nothing can separate him from the love of God in Christ, nor dash him from His Saviour’s hand, and that nothing can happen to him which is not for his long-term good, making him more like Jesus and bringing him ultimately closer to his God.” (Packer,107)

“Relax and exult in your appointed feast.  I will take responsibility for tomorrow’s obedience.” (Piper,49)

Blood everywhere!—where’s grace?

LOVE IT!

It’s kind of gross, really–we’re not on the farm, but in the beautifully outfitted tabernacle, with the priests in their robes woven of scarlet and blue and purple linen ornamented with precious gems and twisted cords of gold… It’s a beautiful setting. The furnishings are overlaid with pure gold. The altar with bronze. Skillfully embroidered curtains hang on silver hooks all around… But what’s that smell?!

Burning on the altar are the fat, the kidneys and the liver of the bull that’s been killed for the priests’ consecration. The rest will be burned outside the camp. It’s a sin offering. Up next is the ram. Its blood will be spattered on the altar and its whole body burned there. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. He is pleased with the smell.

There’s blood everywhere. A second ram has been killed. Its blood is spattered on the priest’s clothes and pools at the base of the altar. Aaron and his sons wear this blood on their right ears, right thumbs and right big toes. It marks them as God’s priests. It sets them aside as holy to the Lord. This ram has been killed in their place. They will boil it and eat it.

The sacrificial requirements for the consecration of the priests are all quite detailed, all quite bloody, and all quite pleasing to the Lord. And I get this uncomfortable feeling as I read (Ex.29) that this God is so ‘other’, so different from the One I think I know…

I flip to Numbers and read about the cleansing of the Levites. This is the tribe set apart to serve in the Tabernacle. They own no share of land but are themselves the Lord’s possession in exchange for all the firstborn Israelite children. Ever since the death angel passed over the houses with blood on the doorposts, God has claimed the firstborn of man and beast for Himself. The Levite tribe represents them and will serve in the tabernacle making atonement for the sins of the people ‘that there may be no plague among [them]’ Num.8:19

It all sounds so stern, so foreboding, so…serious. And then comes the institution of the Passover feast (Numbers 9) It is the first month of the second year since they were liberated from Egypt. In each home a lamb will be slaughtered, its blood spilt as a reminder of the night the death angel passed over their homes in Egypt resulting in their rescue from bondage. They must never forget how God spared their lives that night: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you” (Ex.12:13) They must remember how He freed them from bondage to serve Him. It cost the death of many lambs.

The system of animal sacrifice that God established disturbs our modern sensibilities. In our day animals have rights to long and happy lives, babies don’t, and ‘sin’ is nearly obsolete. We sense its reality when our own perceived rights are violated, but seldom spot it in ourselves, and certainly not as something necessitating or ending in death. Even as Christians we tend to define sin in terms that describe somebody else’s behavior. We prefer not to think of it at all except perhaps as something forgiven and forgotten. Over and done with. We are after all forgiven, and that’s that, right? The Old Testament is… well, it’s old, obsolete.

To refer to oneself as ‘just a sinner saved by grace’ is strictly taboo in some circles. We are saints now. Sin is past tense.

Meanwhile sin wreaks havoc all around us. It spreads like a cancer even in the Church. No lambs are slaughtered in our sanctuaries and we seem to have forgotten the cost of sin. The fear of God is little known. We prefer to think warm fuzzy thoughts about how special we are to Him. We have misconstrued grace to mean we are ok because we are loved.

God loves me? Oh, so do I! Great, everything’s good.

Into this kind of fuzzy thinking Old Testament teaching comes as a sharp jolt. What kind of God is this who requires perpetual blood sacrifices and demands the death sentence for rebellious children and adulterous women… How is this loving? Where’s grace? We look at the Law and fail to see it for what it is–both a manual containing our design specifications and a set of warning lights to show us when we’ve exceeded them.

For the last couple weeks I’ve been immersed in the study of grace, stuck there trying to perceive the connection between a grace-filled life and a holy life. You’d think one were at odds with the other based on the way ‘grace’ is lived out in the modern church scene! But the Bible describes a grace-based life that leads us always to a holy life as described by the law.

The initial passage that arrested my attention was this:

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:11-12)

Hmm… Grace teaches us to live righteously. There it is. How is that?

I’ve done more reading and thinking than I can pack into a read-able blog post. But what is the ‘take-away’? My study started with a question posed in a small group setting: “Do we really need more teaching on grace?” Isn’t that part of the problem? I mean, we’re saved by grace, true enough. We (think we) get that. But surely we need to move on, to grow up, to learn to be holy and not always default to ‘grace’. And what value is teaching on grace if we don’t recognize that we are sinners?

That set my wheels churning. Are the grace-resistant sticklers for ‘holiness’ right? Are we designed to move on from grace and learn to tackle sin some other way? Does teaching on the grace of God prevent people seeing sin for what it is?

Long study short, I don’t see this disconnect in Scripture. (Cf. I Pet.1:15-19  Luke 6:46  II Pet.1:9 ) Grace births us into lives of holiness, when rightly apprehended. The problem seems to be with our understanding of grace and our misunderstanding of what the law is for. The law was never intended to make us righteous, but neither has it become outmoded.

As a standard of righteousness it is truly an expression of God’s love for us; it shows us something is terribly wrong about us that requires a blood sacrifice to be made to buy our pardon. It is good, but it cannot save us. Try as we may, we will always fall short. This is part of the definition of sin, that which falls short of God’s glory!

This is where all that blood comes in. Blood everywhere. Blood sacrifices day after day, year after year to remind God’s people of the gravity of sin, the destruction it causes, the death it entails. It’s so messy. Blood is, and sin is. Yes, this is the Old Covenant, based on law and blood sacrifices for failing to keep it. But without going back here to read Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers we miss the immensity of our sin problem, the terrifying holiness of our God and the significance of Jesus death on our behalf.

John the Baptist declared:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. Jn.1:29

With the imagery of the Tabernacle in mind, this makes perfect sense. Every lamb slaughtered foreshadowed this ultimate solution to sin. The grace we live in and lounge in and tend to take for granted, was bought with BLOOD.

“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Heb.9:22   It is good to be reminded. This is what the Passover observance was for. We no longer need look back to the worth of a bleating sheep in deterring the death angel. We look back to God’s Lamb who ‘by means of his own blood secur(ed) an eternal redemption.’ Heb.9:21

This do in remembrance of Me Lk.22:19

Every time we pick up the little cube of bread or the chip of matzah cracker, and every time we sip a few drops from a ‘Communion’ cup… we are remembering Jesus’ broken body and spilled blood, for us, until He comes again to complete this saving work He has begun. It’s not over!

Our redemption’s been purchased; we’re brought near to God. But this grace in which we now stand is for a purpose. We’re not meant to stay in subjection to sin, anymore than the Israelites were left helpless slaves in Egypt! The blood has bought us newness of life–the Lamb’s life. In Him we live, by grace, for God’s glory.

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. I Cor.6:20

And when we fail, when we return to the sin that promises freedom but always enslaves leaving us vulnerable to condemnation…there is the BLOOD of Jesus to lay claim to. Because of it we can simply confess our sins and our slate is washed clean.(I Jn.1:9) It’s the Lamb’s blood; it’s grace that acquits us of guilt and restores us to fellowship with the Father of lights. The Accuser cannot defend his case when we lay claim to Jesus’ blood as our claim to righteousness. This is the grace of God in which we humbly stand.

It is not grace to sin—how is that freedom? Sin enslaves. But it is grace to stand in blood-bought freedom from sin’s clawing grasp. And it is good. We stand ears, thumbs and toes tipped with blood, priests made holy for God’s service. We stand freed from the law’s condemnation, but ironically, now fulfilling its decrees from the heart as the risen Lamb lives His life through us.

Grace has brought us to this place and will enable us to live lives befitting saints in the midst of an increasingly corrupt world. The world would squeeze us into its mold were it not for God’s grace as ministered to us through His indwelling Spirit. And that is a glimmering of what I see of grace in Scripture. It is inseparable from Blood.

Grace is not merely a necessity to clear the guilt of the moral slacker…It is not something we outgrow as we become more proficient saints. (II Pet.3:18) It is not a painless ticket to glory… It is a hard-won, blood-bought provision of God for the one who finds himself a hopeless sinner with no lamb good enough to bring.

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world…”

Behold “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (I Pet.19) The Lamb has been given; it is ours to lay claim to in humble faith, whether we be sinners far from God, or sinners who have been brought near. We all need the Lamb. We all need grace. We all need blood everywhere.

Amen?

–LS

You have come to… Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Heb.12:24

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Heb.9:11-12

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Heb.9:13-14

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works… Heb.10:19-24

Has God got you Cornered?

LOVE IT!
 

The enemy was coming. They could see his chariots glinting in the sun. The thunder of horses’ hooves made the ground shake beneath their feet. Terror rose in their throats. We’re gonna‘ die; it would have been better to stay in Egypt, slaving, but alive.

This is actually what the people said. Poor Moses. Poor God! This must have pierced his heart. With his mighty arm He’d whisked them from under the enemy’s nose and was in the process of leading them to their new home…like a gallant Prince.

Only there was this detour. It wasn’t a comfortable one, but then it wasn’t for their sakes that He’d turned them around and maneuvered them into this sticky position, between a rock and the sea. Somehow the Egyptians had caught wind of it and Pharaoh decided to go get his slave force back! It should have been easy; they were cornered in the desert. No way out, but for God.

After all that Pharaoh had already seen of plagues and death wreaked by this God, you’d think he would have known better than to mess with God’s people. But this was as God had planned it. He’d led his people into this awkward position to tantalize the enemy to oppose Him one more time so that one more time He could show himself strong and ‘get glory over Pharaoh and all his host’ so the Egyptians would know beyond a doubt that ‘I am the Lord.’  (Ex.14:4)

It’s a story worth considering if you find yourself in a tight spot through no fault of your own. God may have you cornered for purposes that go far beyond you to the praise of His glory.

So what are you to do?

First, what NOT to do…

By way of negative example, from Exodus 14, written no doubt for our benefit:

1) ‘they feared greatly’ As long as we’re focused on the terror this will be our lot. Had they paused to consider that God had led them to this place… and that God had gone to great lengths to free them from their enemy prior to this…they might have had a different response.

2) ‘they cried out to the Lord’ This would have been a good idea, if they had gotten past the initial panicked AAAAaaaaa!!!! to a prayer powered by faith. Instead, they turned on Moses…

3) they blamed their hero for all their troubles, completely disregarding the fact that he was in this mess for their sakes. And they ranted a jumble of terror-stricken nonsense about wishing to be slaves in Egypt.

That’s what they did when they were cornered. And to be honest, I have done the very same thing in times of crisis. The memories stand etched in my mind as witness. But God didn’t abandon them for their want of confidence in Him. He would use this crisis, (as He has used mine) to build their faith in Him and in their leader, Moses.

So what ARE we to do in times of crisis
when we feel cornered and helpless?

For this we turn to Moses’ instructions and example:

#1 Fear not. (smile) It’s easier said than done, but nevertheless, our calling. And it will be more easily accomplished when we turn our gaze away from the crisis long enough to hear what God is saying. Singing praise songs is a time-honored strategy for gaining perspective. (See: II Chron.20)

[At risk of distracting us from the story in view, may I commend to you a parallel account of God rescuing His people. It’s in II Chronicles 20 and I’ll slip in some quotes from there as we go..]

“O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (II Chron. 20:12)

#2 Stand firm. Was this the story Paul was considering when he gave the Ephesian church a strategy for the fight of faith? “…and having done all, to stand firm.”  No running around willy-nilly, no jumping up and down in an agitated panic, no tearing off to hide. Just stand firm, feet planted, right where God has put you until He gives the next instruction.

“You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you.” (II Chron.20:17)

#3 Watch God do the fighting! “See the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today.” (Ex.14:13) We often think things are up to us that in reality are up to God to perform. He sometimes asks only that we stand on the sidelines in confident expectancy while He does the fighting and gets all the glory.

And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the LORD to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s.’ “ (II Chron.20:15)

#4 Oh and last but not least they were to ‘Shut up!’ That’s not exactly how Moses said it, mind you. To his credit he appears to have responded calmly and confidently to all the drama: “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (Ex.14:14) Whew, what a welcome silence that would have been! The last thing that’s needed in a crisis is to multiply desperate faithless words. Better to be quiet.

At that point Moses could hear God’s direction–Stop crying out to me; use that staff I gave you to part the sea! Why of course, why hadn’t he thought of that?! Maybe this is a reminder when we pray, to also listen to what God is saying in answer to our dilemma. It could be that we have in our hand the very thing God will use to answer our request.

We know the rest of the story–

…how God brought premature darkness and a cloud to delay the foe until the path through the sea had been blown dry…

…and how his people crossed safely but when the Egyptians followed, their chariot wheels ran amuck and God put them in a panic until they were the ones attempting to flee!… “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

…and how He brought the waters crashing back down to bury the enemy in a watery grave.

And what was the end result?

God was glorified–made to look great, just as He’d planned! His own people now feared Him and believed in the LORD and in their appointed leader (Ex.14:31). And the surrounding nations were terrified and let the Israelites pass on by! “Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone.” (15:16)

So if/when you find yourself huddled in terror, heart pounding in your ears as you imagine the worst–stand firm in faith and see what God will do. He has you cornered there for His own glory. He is mighty to save! Our Redeemer is strong; the Lord of Heaven’s armies is His name! He will surely defend us. (Jer.50:34)

–LS

“You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.” Ex.15:13

Recipe for Dismay

LOVE IT!

Have you felt it—that sickening discomposure that leaves you weak and confounded and thinking, “What am I gonna do?!” but too overwhelmed to imagine there is anything that can be done…?

Literally ‘dismay’ means to be shattered, to be broken down with fear, ‘shorn of strength’—’like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.’  (II Kings 19:26)  You get the feeling.

There are plenty of examples.  Joseph’s brothers knew this sickening dread the instant Joseph, that foreboding Egyptian ruler, identified who he was to them.  They recognized not only his power, but the grave wrong they had done him and what was due them in return. (Gen.45:3) This is an interesting picture of what it will be like to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ—nothing but dastardly unworthiness on our part, but… He is our Brother and has forgiven.  And that makes all the difference…  But that is a tangent.

Dismay is the temptation Joshua faced when called to lead the Israelites to conquer all of Canaan and claim it as their own. There were giants in the land!  The people back-pedaled fast, figuring it would be better to go back to Egypt.  God must hate them to have brought them to this juncture. (Deut.1:27ff.) They were the picture of dismay.  All but Joshua and Caleb.

Dismay is what all Israel felt–everyone but David, when Goliath stood up!  Another giant in the land. (I Sam.17:10,11)

And it’s what they felt again when hordes of Moabites and Ammonites came to fight their puny numbers. (II Chron.20:15)

It’s easy to find examples of dismay.  I’ve tasted it too—that sickening something in the pit of your stomach.  So, just in case you haven’t, I’ve written down the recipe.

It’s a common sense recipe really.  You just follow your best judgment with the proportions.  Start with a good look at the situation.  What are all the problems you face?  How big are they?  Compare them to your own strengths and aptitudes to see how you’ll measure up… You’ve got to really focus here.  Keep the problems foremost in your mind.

Then forget about any hocus-pocus promises. They’re only words on paper after all.  What you need is solutions you can work toward–a concrete plan of action.

Don’t be deterred by thoughts of what’s happened in the past—times when things all worked out for good.  Those were lucky exceptions. This situation is going to require some brute force, either that or some astute maneuvering.  You dare not leave it to chance.

And what about prayer.  Well, the recipe that always works for me involves praying in my own name.  Do you know what I mean?  This is how I see the situation.  This is what I want to see happen.  And this is how I’d like to see it accomplished.  Now for a game plan. Hmmm….this will require some quiet time to fret and fume.

Well, those are the main ingredients for mixing up a masterful batch of dismay, with a hint of discouragement and a touch of depression.  Oh, and there’s one important instruction for mixing it up properly. Pay careful attention to every thought that flits through your head.  Take each one seriously, as if it were the gospel truth.  Think those thoughts and don’t question their source.  It’ll give your batch of dismay a creative flare.

And that’s that—Be thou dismayed.  Good Luck!

–LS

P.S.  For more detailed instructions, consider the Scripture links included in the above instructions.  They will help to flesh out the complete picture. And should you wish to brew an antidote for dismay, these links will serve that purpose too!

To get a jump on the antidote to dismay, start with this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijytLs96yig