Coming Out of a Messy Background (1 Kings 2)

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Did you come from an incredible, all-everything family? Over the couple of generations before you, was it free of scandal and foolishness, confusion and infighting? If you can answer these questions with a “yes,” you are exceedingly rare.

Families can be messy things, and socio-economic or class status does not make for a definitive difference. Some of the wealthiest and most successful of people in terms of the ways that score is kept in the material world are either from or are trying to lead a dysfunctional home.

Over my years at the church, I (Randy writing) have been very open with you about the mixed background from which I’ve come. It is probably confusing to hear parts of the story here and there – talking of the great blessing of successful and godly parents and grandparents, yet also of an adoption due to some messiness that is so confusing that I sometimes have had to resort to drawing charts and graphs to explain this and that mother and father and grandmother and grandfather and how they intersect and overlap. It is a big pot full of blessing, yet also a kettle of dysfunction and crud both boiling on the stove at the same time.

This week we will look at the life of Solomon in our “Drift” series. Here too was a guy with great blessing, being the child of the king with a promise to inherit the kingdom. Yet his story begins in an illegitimate relationship and involves a crazy household with brothers and family that were dysfunctional and publically immoral in the most awful of ways. But in the big picture, the blessings of God outweighed the messes, particularly as Solomon humbly walked in light of those blessings.

Today, let us get some background on the ascendance of Solomon as the third and final of Israel’s three kings of the united kingdom, with Solomon following his father David, who had followed Saul. Let’s quickly work through 1 Kings chapter two …

2:1 – When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. 2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, 3 and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go 4 and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

We could just talk about this paragraph and make a week’s study out of it. It contains the most timeless big idea of them all: If anyone will trust and obey God and prioritize Him in their lives, they will prosper, and that blessing will transcend generations. But the Devil is in the details … he really is!  It is doing this with consistency as a sinner in a sinful world that is the challenge. And it was exactly that, even for Solomon, the most materially blessed man of all time.

David now gives Solomon a charge to deal with some outstanding problems in the kingdom, to both execute justice and establish his rule as the next king in the land …

5 “Now you yourself know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to the two commanders of Israel’s armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He killed them, shedding their blood in peacetime as if in battle, and with that blood he stained the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. 6 Deal with him according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace.

7 “But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead and let them be among those who eat at your table. They stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom.

8 “And remember, you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who called down bitter curses on me the day I went to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord: ‘I will not put you to death by the sword.’ 9 But now, do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood.”

10 Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. 11 He had reigned forty years over Israel—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. 12 So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.

We will get back to Solomon’s fulfillment of his father’s wishes and decrees, but first comes another story that has some background in the previous chapter one. It relates to Solomon’s older brother Adonijah, who attempted (successfully for a brief time) to set himself up as the king to follow David; but a shrewd plan of David to establish Solomon instead quickly dissipated this errant rebellion. Solomon let it slide without immediate retribution, telling Adonijah there would be no retaliation so long as he proved himself to be a good boy, but …

13 Now Adonijah, the son of Haggith, went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. Bathsheba asked him, “Do you come peacefully?”

He answered, “Yes, peacefully.” 14 Then he added, “I have something to say to you.”

“You may say it,” she replied.

15 “As you know,” he said, “the kingdom was mine. All Israel looked to me as their king. But things changed, and the kingdom has gone to my brother; for it has come to him from the Lord. 16 Now I have one request to make of you. Do not refuse me.”

“You may make it,” she said.

17 So he continued, “Please ask King Solomon—he will not refuse you—to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.”

18 “Very well,” Bathsheba replied, “I will speak to the king for you.”

19 When Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and she sat down at his right hand.

20 “I have one small request to make of you,” she said. “Do not refuse me.”

The king replied, “Make it, my mother; I will not refuse you.”

21 So she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given in marriage to your brother Adonijah.”

22 King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you request Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him—after all, he is my older brother—yes, for him and for Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah!”

23 Then King Solomon swore by the Lord: “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if Adonijah does not pay with his life for this request! 24 And now, as surely as the Lord lives—he who has established me securely on the throne of my father David and has founded a dynasty for me as he promised—Adonijah shall be put to death today!” 25 So King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he struck down Adonijah and he died.

Wow, that seems like an overreaction on the part of Solomon. But the new king in his wisdom saw it for what it was, an underhanded attempt to gain the kingdom for himself. Abishag was a concubine of David, and having him as wife, along with being the older brother, would look to the eyes of the nation as the guy who should really be the king.

26 To Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go back to your fields in Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now, because you carried the ark of the Sovereign Lord before my father David and shared all my father’s hardships.” 27 So Solomon removed Abiathar from the priesthood of the Lord, fulfilling the word the Lord had spoken at Shiloh about the house of Eli.

Joab was a mighty military man, but he had committed grave atrocities in his time for which justice cried out to be made right.

28 When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah though not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar. 29 King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord and was beside the altar. Then Solomon ordered Benaiah son of Jehoiada, “Go, strike him down!”

30 So Benaiah entered the tent of the Lord and said to Joab, “The king says, ‘Come out!’”

But he answered, “No, I will die here.”

Benaiah reported to the king, “This is how Joab answered me.”

31 Then the king commanded Benaiah, “Do as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so clear me and my whole family of the guilt of the innocent blood that Joab shed. 32 The Lord will repay him for the blood he shed, because without my father David knowing it he attacked two men and killed them with the sword. Both of them—Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army—were better men and more upright than he. 33 May the guilt of their blood rest on the head of Joab and his descendants forever. But on David and his descendants, his house and his throne, may there be the Lord’s peace forever.”

34 So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck down Joab and killed him, and he was buried at his home out in the country. 35 The king put Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army in Joab’s position and replaced Abiathar with Zadok the priest.

It is a complicated story, but Abiathar being replaced here fulfilled an earlier word of the Lord that the priestly line of Eli would fade out, and it does so right here. Again, the issue was disobedience rather than following God’s word and prescriptive promises for blessing.

The next to be dealt with is Shimei, a man who mocked David terribly during the time when David was seeking to establish his legitimate reign following Saul. Remember that Saul was a Benjamite and that the line of kings coming from the tribe of Judah begins with David, descending ultimately to Jesus.

36 Then the king sent for Shimei and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, but do not go anywhere else. 37 The day you leave and cross the Kidron Valley, you can be sure you will die; your blood will be on your own head.”

38 Shimei answered the king, “What you say is good. Your servant will do as my lord the king has said.” And Shimei stayed in Jerusalem for a long time.

39 But three years later, two of Shimei’s slaves ran off to Achish son of Maakah, king of Gath, and Shimei was told, “Your slaves are in Gath.” 40 At this, he saddled his donkey and went to Achish at Gath in search of his slaves. So Shimei went away and brought the slaves back from Gath.

41 When Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned, 42 the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the Lord and warn you, ‘On the day you leave to go anywhere else, you can be sure you will die’? At that time you said to me, ‘What you say is good. I will obey.’ 43 Why then did you not keep your oath to the Lord and obey the command I gave you?”

44 The king also said to Shimei, “You know in your heart all the wrong you did to my father David. Now the Lord will repay you for your wrongdoing. 45 But King Solomon will be blessed, and David’s throne will remain secure before the Lord forever.”

46 Then the king gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down and he died.

The kingdom was now established in Solomon’s hands.

It is all messy stuff, isn’t it?  When we think of Solomon, we think immediately of the wisdom and riches, the greatness of his kingdom, and then only later of his “drift” from God and fidelity to truth. But we forget the messy beginning.

One of the most profound things I’ve ever heard came from Paul Bitner – a professional Christian counselor from our church family, who was on the Board of Elders some years ago. He said referencing the popular and famous feel-good book entitled “I’m OK, You’re OK” that the most truthful book title about the nature of man should be entitled, “I’m a Mess; You’re a Mess.”

Even at its best, our backgrounds are messy. And if you can’t find dreadful sinners in your immediate past, all you need to remember is that you have, like me, the ancestors of Adam and Eve. The curse of sin is that life is going to be hard in a sin-stained world, and our only hope is to follow the Lord closely in obedience.

But it is easy to drift away, and that is our theme in this series, and that is what we will look at in the life of Solomon this week.

Chasing After Nothing (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

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I open today with an illustration that will REALLY tell you how terribly old I am and how long I’ve been on the planet. This one even stuns me.

Back when I was in middle school, I participated in every sport I could find. Some of them, I was pretty good; others, not so much. But every sport made us run some sort of distance run as a warm-up before practice or for conditioning at the end. And doing this was right up my alley. I always beat everyone without trying very hard. So, when they started a cross country team my freshman year of high school, I was recruited.

Understand that this was long before the running boom of the 80s. It does not strike us as odd whatsoever to see a person out running on the roadways for exercise. But about 1970, this was never really seen. When I would be out doing this on my own, it was not unusual for a car to slow down alongside me, roll down the windows and in total seriousness ask me what I was doing. Was I OK? What was I running from? Did I need a ride somewhere? So why again are you doing this? I finally came up with what I thought was a cute, albeit “snarky” answer, saying, “Oh, I’m timing my watch to see if it is accurate!”

Running for fitness seemed to everyone at that time as a silly chasing of the wind, a worthless pursuit. Even as a sport, why run without a ball to chase or person to tackle? I later came up with a saying in my running coaching years … “Even a dog likes games with balls, but the greatest athletes run distance.”  When it showed up on our team shirt that year, some of the other coaches in the school weren’t happy with me. Oh well.

The successful and vital Christian life is like running a race. Really? Yes. As was said on the 80s and 90s kids educational TV program called Reading Rainbow, “You don’t have to take my word for it, you can look it up in a book!”  The book is called The Bible; you may have heard of it. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9 …

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

I could go on and on with running themes, but the point to be made today is that this is the total opposite of drifting. Drifting away from God results in pursuits that are indeed a chasing of the wind.floating otter

And when you have drifted away from God and pursue illusive material world gains on your own, you will never be satisfied, because you are chasing something that does not really exist permanently.

Frankly, this is what the vast majority of people are doing in life … certainly those apart from faith who are only invested in this world. And yet even among people who claim to know God, so many are looking to find satisfaction in the stuff that can be held onto, experienced, touched and measured.

But when life is done, all we have to hold onto is God, as all the rest is passing away.

Is there anything more illustrative of the pursuit of the temporary than this game Pokemon Go?

Let’s not be grouchy old folks about this, complaining about these young people with their phones.  But could there be a better spiritual metaphor for our generation?

A local person had a coworker who was playing Pokemon Go at the office. An older employee, observing his antics, couldn’t comprehend this. Trying to explain this app prompted the following questions: pokemon-1553971__340

  • “What are you looking for again?”
  • “Where are they?”
  • “You mean you can’t see them?”

There is something really funny about a generation of smart phone users spending so much time and energy chasing things that aren’t real.

And that is what being consummately driven to attain material happiness is like: it’s about chasing the illusion that if I can get just one more—just one more dollar, one more gadget, one more anything—then I’ll be happy. But it’s a lie. That is a fantasy.

Don’t drift into that errant current of thinking, because it was cause you to float unknowing toward the falls of destruction. Hang onto to God. Pursue truth. Know God’s Word. Obey him. Grab onto life eternal.

(This is the last devotional for this week. In preparation for Sunday you might want to read about Solomon in 1 Kings 11.)

Drifting: Then and Now (Judges 17 and 18)

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The story we are studying this week about Jonathan (the Levite personal priest of Micah as related the past two days from Judges 17 and 18) is one that happened about 3350 to 3400 years ago. And I could imagine a modern person asking how in the world something from three millennia ago can have any bearing or wisdom for life today. It was such a different time, and to an extent that is true.

But the nature of man does not change over the millennia. Materialism is the same as it was. One people group dislodging another to take their land is the story of human history. People looking out for themselves rather than others is timeless.

Since the nature of man does not change, we can observe even Old Testament narratives from antiquity and gain from them some timeless principles that are true in any generation. I would make five such observations for your consideration from these two chapters.

Drift from God begins with ignorance of His Word and biblical truth.

We see this in every component of the story, and it is not just with Jonathan, but with all of the characters (who are all Jewish people and part of Israel). The mother is into idols. He son Micah also already had idols. Jonathan agrees to be a priest away from Israel’s center of worship, and he incorporates idolatry in a syncretistic way. The Danites are filled with superstition and readiness to set up a show of religion, devoid of truth. Every one of these people should have known better from their background and affiliation as God’s covenant people. They possessed the truth, but they did not let the truth possess them.

Going through life without knowing the Scripture is like having an owner’s manual on what life is about and how to live it successfully, but paying no attention to it. This would be like never looking at the owner’s manual of your car or taking care to do responsible things like oil changes and maintenance.

But people live life in this careless fashion and then they wonder why they have multiplied problems. Ridiculously, they then blame God like a totally irresponsible car owner would blame Ford or General Motors for manufacturers’ error.

Drift from God is accelerated by the allure of worldly gain.

Jonathan was from the tribe of Levi and was a grandson of Moses; so he had a calling upon his life to serve the nation in religious leadership. This did not include running around the country looking for a place to live as a sort of religious free agent.

The seduction of this world is, of course, that accumulating the securities and joys it offers will bring us satisfaction and security. We never really ever get completely away from this incipient tendency, not in any generation.

Drift from God is sedated and suppressed by merely outward religious symbols and rituals.

The mother of Micah has superstitions about curses and blessings. Micah is sure God will bless him because he sets up his own personal shrine, etc.  The Danites believe the idols will help them, even though these objects did nothing to protect their first owner from this tribal group!

Just because something is religious and is seen does not mean it is accurate or true or real. Within circles of theological liberalism, there is little belief in the Bible, Jesus as divine, objective truth, the need for salvation, and dozens of other truths of Scripture. They just sorta believe in some big, grand ideas about love and kindness. But it looks and sound good!

And whether liberal or evangelical, there are common views that going through the motions of religious duty and putting in the time is a sufficient effort to get “credit.”  It is similar to doing time for something like filling a “community service hours” sort of obligation. It’s a good thing, but more than anything, you just want to get them done and over with.

Drift from God may also be sedated and suppressed by apparent signs of success.

Micah could ask who else in Ephraim had their own personal priest?  And with the Danites, it was a long way to worship where God said to go, so setting up their own system made sense and looked good too.

There is no shortage in our time of folks being satisfied by having the apparent symbols of success. People who have a lot of material gain may think that this is the symbol of God’s blessing and pleasure with them.

And in the religious world we are really into the symbols of success, most often measured in America 2016 by numbers of people, physical structures, and offerings totals. The bigger the better, the bigger being obviously the blessing of God.

Rather, we should look for long-term patterns of faithfulness and consistency in Scripture and the growth of the lives of people connected to a local church family, noting the presence of people oriented to truth, and folks who are walking and growing together through the good and bad of life.

Drift from God may have the long-term result of generational consequences.

The story in Judges ends with the information that for generations there was an alternate worship of idols that took place that rivaled the true worship of God at Shiloh. Generations of Jonathan’s family facilitated this fraudulent activity.

Religious indifference and a lack of valuation for the things of God (due to drift) will surely be seen and felt by rising generations. If faith is nothing more than the thing you do when there’s nothing else better to do at that time, or that you do as an obligation to get it out of the way … this will be noted, and it is highly likely that the next generation will value it even less.

Yes, drift is drift. Whether it is from the descendants of Adam and Eve, the period of the Judges in Israel, or the Tri-State area in 2016, drifting from God looks pretty much the same. And you don’t want to look like this.

The Lack of a Compass Leads to Drifting (Judges 18)

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Though there is a chapter break between chapters 17 and 18 of the book of Judges, it is really one extended story that features this character we introduced yesterday named Jonathan. And again, this entire story is the beginning of a sort of appendix in the book of Judges, where the writer gives several illustrations of the lawless conditions that so often prevailed during this time of Israel’s history.

In fact, the first verse of chapter 18 is again an editorial remark by the writer about the prevailing problems of that era. 18:1 – In those days Israel had no king.

It is not actually that an earthly king was an end-all solution. More often than not they brought a new set of problems, and in fact every last one of the kings in the eventual northern kingdom after the reign of Solomon (when the united kingdom split, north and south) was evil in the sight of the Lord. God himself wanted to be their king, desiring them to live under his prescribed law and covenant.

The story now goes on to talk about one of the 12 tribes of Israel, the tribe of Dan. Named after the 12 sons of Jacob, Dan was the fifth of the boys, born next after Judah. Again, this story happens in the very early years of the occupation of the Promised Land, and this tribe was not yet truly settled into a geographically-defined place of their own.

And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 2 So the Danites sent five of their leading men from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and explore it. These men represented all the Danites. They told them, “Go, explore the land.”

The two towns of Zorah and Eshtaol were west of the area where Jerusalem is in Judea. The Danites needed a more spacious place to be, and in the vein of the 12 spies who went from Moses into the Promised Land, five men were sent to head far north to find a place to live. One of the first regions they would go through on their journey was the hill country of Ephraim …

So they entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night.

Let me share today the same illustration I used on Sunday to describe what is happening here. This is like some people from Montgomery County, Maryland, being tired of living in the D.C. suburbs, sending some representatives north to explore if Maine might be a place they could live. Passing through the hill country of Ephraim would be sort of like these guys passing through Allentown on the way to the northern border of the country.

3 When they were near Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they turned in there and asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?”

4 He told them what Micah had done for him, and said, “He has hired me and I am his priest.”

5 Then they said to him, “Please inquire of God to learn whether our journey will be successful.”

6 The priest answered them, “Go in peace. Your journey has the Lord’s approval.”

On their journey these five men hear an accent they recognize as from where they’ve just come from. It is this fellow Jonathan. Surprised by this, they hear his story about what he is doing in being away from the place he more appropriately should be. What an opportunity for them to find out if God will bless their journey! There is no mention that Jonathan actually sought the Lord on the matter; it does not appear so. But, being a positive fellow, he assured them of blessing and God’s approval.

So the five men go to the northernmost borders of the Land, and come to what is essentially Caribou, Maine … in this story a place called Laish …

7 So the five men left and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living in safety, like the Sidonians, at peace and secure. And since their land lacked nothing, they were prosperous. Also, they lived a long way from the Sidonians and had no relationship with anyone else.

The five research spies find a town in a fantastic location that is rich in natural resources, isolated and relatively safe, populated by people who were enjoying life without any alliances with other peoples … like the Sidonians – a city to the northwest of them that was just beyond the Promised Land. On one hand, these people were living the life of Riley; but on the other hand, their isolation made them vulnerable to attack.

8 When they returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their fellow Danites asked them, “How did you find things?”

9 They answered, “Come on, let’s attack them! We have seen the land, and it is very good. Aren’t you going to do something? Don’t hesitate to go there and take it over. 10 When you get there, you will find an unsuspecting people and a spacious land that God has put into your hands, a land that lacks nothing whatever.”

11 Then six hundred men of the Danites, armed for battle, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. 12 On their way they set up camp near Kiriath Jearim in Judah. This is why the place west of Kiriath Jearim is called Mahaneh Dan[c] to this day. 13 From there they went on to the hill country of Ephraim and came to Micah’s house.

So the Danites determine to make Laish their own, to attack it and claim it. They put together a large force that heads north, once again passing through the area in Ephraim where Micah and his precious personal pet priest Jonathan lived.

14 Then the five men who had spied out the land of Laish said to their fellow Danites, “Do you know that one of these houses has an ephod, some household gods and an image overlaid with silver? Now you know what to do.” 15 So they turned in there and went to the house of the young Levite at Micah’s place and greeted him. 16 The six hundred Danites, armed for battle, stood at the entrance of the gate. 17 The five men who had spied out the land went inside and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods while the priest and the six hundred armed men stood at the entrance of the gate.

18 When the five men went into Micah’s house and took the idol, the ephod and the household gods, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

19 They answered him, “Be quiet! Don’t say a word. Come with us, and be our father and priest. Isn’t it better that you serve a tribe and clan in Israel as priest rather than just one man’s household?” 20 The priest was very pleased. He took the ephod, the household gods and the idol and went along with the people. 21 Putting their little children, their livestock and their possessions in front of them, they turned away and left.

As a warm-up exercise for conquering Laish, they hear about the good luck charms within the shrine of gods and objects in the home of Micah. So they decide to steal them. At first, Jonathan protests … that is, until they make him an offer he can’t refuse. This is a mega-promotion, from serving a family as priest, to being the priest over an entire tribe of Israel – the Danites. This would be like being a bookkeeper for a local gas station to being offered the job as Chief Financial Officer of Exxon.

22 When they had gone some distance from Micah’s house, the men who lived near Micah were called together and overtook the Danites. 23 As they shouted after them, the Danites turned and said to Micah, “What’s the matter with you that you called out your men to fight?”

24 He replied, “You took the gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you ask, ‘What’s the matter with you?’”

25 The Danites answered, “Don’t argue with us, or some of the men may get angry and attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives.” 26 So the Danites went their way, and Micah, seeing that they were too strong for him, turned around and went back home.

Micah and his mighty men … well, maybe not so mighty … went after the Danites to retrieve his possessions. Catching up to them, Micah quotes Elvis and says, “There goes my EVERYTHING!”

Ah … Micah my man … if your everything (idols) could be taken, doesn’t that mean that they really aren’t very powerful to help you out?

Ah … Danite dudes … if you think these gods are going to help you out, why weren’t they strong enough to keep you from stealing them? They sound defective!

27 Then they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and went on to Laish, against a people at peace and secure. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city. 28 There was no one to rescue them because they lived a long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else. The city was in a valley near Beth Rehob.

The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. 29 They named it Dan after their ancestor Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city used to be called Laish. 30 There the Danites set up for themselves the idol, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. 31 They continued to use the idol Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh.

The Danites are successful in their attack and conquest. They establish their tribal home there, which would exist for generations. Naming it “Dan,” it would be the northernmost establishment in Israel. Throughout the Old Testament you read the phrase “from Dan to Beersheba.”  This was the OT writers’ way of saying “from the farthest north to the deepest south” … or like saying “from Caribou to Key West.”

And then we get to the climatic purpose of the story being told:  Jonathan is named, it is revealed he is the very grandson of Moses, and the generations of his family would lead the Danites in a pagan worship of idols for generations that would rival the true work and worship of the God of Israel. Unbelievable.

This was a long story to tell, and let’s just make one point here now. Where do you see anywhere in this story where anyone at all has a moral compass? Where is anyone even trying to obey God and live in accord with his covenantal word and law?

But that is how most people honestly live. They are like being on a raft in the middle of a large body of water beyond view of land … and without a compass. Where are they drifting? Toward land? Away from land? Toward danger? It would be nice if an albatross or something would fly by and drop a compass and map upon them.

Since we have a compass and map for life – the Scriptures – why would we allow ourselves to just drift?  Don’t be a dope and do that.

 

 

 

Nothing Easier Than Drifting (Judges 17)

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This week our devotionals will come from the story of a biblical character named Jonathan. I will confess that right away when I saw how Chris laid out this sermon series and included the name Jonathan (without the Scripture reference to the book of Judges), I at first thought of the more common person of that name – the son of King Saul, David’s BFF. And running that narrative through my mind was thinking where he had been any sort of illustration of drifting from God. This more well-known Jonathan is very highly regarded in the Scriptural record. And I honestly forgot about this other character of the same name.

Our study this week needs a lot of set-up and background conversation, beginning with the name itself. Throughout this extended two-chapter story, our main character is talked about with titles like “young Levite” or “priest.”  It does not come out until the very end of the account that his name was Jonathan and that he was a grandson of Moses.

So this story occurs very early in the period of the Judges in Israel. Whenever we turn to the book of Judges, it is good to recall the history of this period in Israel’s life as a nation. It was after the time that they had conquered the land under Joshua, but before the time that kings were established as leaders under Saul/David/Solomon. The nation had been blessed by God in the conquest of the Promised Land, given the Law with God’s covenant promises of blessing for obedience, but curses for disobedience. They went through periods of disobedience/judgment/revival, etc. under leaders called Judges. The summary phrase of these several centuries was “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”

Chapters 1-16 give the history of this time. Chapters 17ff could best be thought of as an appendix. The story we are looking at today is therefore presented as a sort of “Illustration A” of the craziness that went on during this period.

And there is another main character whose name is Micah. Again, this is a common Jewish name and is not the person who wrote the prophetic little book of that title. This fellow lived in Ephraim, describing an area somewhat to the north of Jerusalem, a region settled by the largest of Israel’s 12 tribes. Our story also later involves a group called the “Danites,” who would be another of the 12 tribes – a much smaller group who at the time of this account were not yet permanently settled into an inheritance in the Promised Land.

So here is the first part of our story for this week that introduces the two characters Micah and Jonathan (spoken of here as a Levite from Bethlehem) …

17:1 – Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim 2 said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels [about 28 pounds] of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have that silver with me; I took it.”

Then his mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son!”

3 When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the Lord for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you.”

4 So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used them to make the idol. And it was put in Micah’s house.

5 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household gods and installed one of his sons as his priest. 6 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

7 A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who had been living within the clan of Judah, 8 left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim.

9 Micah asked him, “Where are you from?”

“I’m a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,” he said, “and I’m looking for a place to stay.”

10 Then Micah said to him, “Live with me and be my father and priest, and I’ll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your food.” 11 So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man became like one of his sons to him. 12 Then Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house. 13 And Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.”

This story is filled to the brim, even at the very beginning, by people who exemplify “drift” from God and truth.

Micah is a good bad boy (a grown son with a family of his own). He was bad because he stole his mom’s silver, but was good because he confessed. Apart from the issues of theft, we see tremendous superstitions about curses, everyone afraid of divine retribution from the God of Israel or some other god or gods. Yes, they had these thoughts all combined in their heads and life practices, with the mom making an idol that would find its place with other idols and pagan objects in the home of Micah.

Yes, this sounds a little whacky, doesn’t it?  It did as well to the person writing the book of Judges years later and looking back on this history, as you see him various times adding a statement like that in verse 6 – In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

God did not stutter when he talked about them not having “any graven images” that they worshipped. But having such objects to trust in was such a big part of the surrounding culture of the rest of the world, and Israelites who were “drifting” from God would appropriate them into their faith system. That seems rather crazy to us, but we do the same thing – the idols are just different sorts of things.

And then we see this young Levite straying away from Judah where his responsibilities of service would be as part of the spiritual worship of the nation. Recall that the Levites (the tribe of Moses and Aaron the priest) were set aside as dedicated to God. It was not within the job description for a Levite to go wandering around the countryside as a free agent priest looking for a place to serve. So he too was drifting from God, as well as from home.

The two characters meet, and Micah sees a great opportunity and offers Jonathan a deal he can’t refuse – to be a personal priest for hire. Beyond the issue of this being outside God’s plan for Israel’s worship, we see that Jonathan is apparently not at all troubled by syncretizing (mixing) the idolatrous elements of Micah’s shrine with Jewish worship. And Micah is internally much comforted at the thought that he now has all the bases covered, and surely God will be good to him and bless him.

Wow. Just wow!  This represents a lot of drift. But drifting is easy to do. Nothing is easier, and that is why we need to be alert.

I told the illustrative story yesterday of being on the beach with my boys when they were little and playing in the surf. There is a phenomenon that happens in the Jersey surf – as I remember getting yelled at by my parents for the same thing when I was a child. Coming in with the waves, then going back into the water and coming in again … over time, one tends to imperceptibly be moved in a direction parallel to the shoreline. If you are not aware of this and watching, after a time you will find yourself hundreds of yards away from where you began. It you are a child, you are now disconnected from your family and their location on the beach.

I would warn the boys about this “drift” before they went into the water. But sure enough, in the busyness of playing, they would forget. Standing on the shoreline I would watch them “drift” down the beach, keeping an eye on them. After a while, one of them would suddenly realize they might be displaced and I would see them looking for home base, not realizing at all how very far away they had gone. Other times I would have to go rescue them from their own drift.

That is such a good illustration of how we can be spiritually. Without the regular discipline of looking to Christ on the solid shoreline of truth, the waves of life will cause us to drift away. It is incredibly easy to do; it just happens unless we prevent it from happening.

And again, drift can especially occur especially when we are away from normal life rhythms and disciplines … like in the summer months. Watch out for “drift.”  It is an enemy of the soul.

The True and Better Rock of Moses (1 Corinthians 10:1-4)

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Jesus is not only the true and better Moses; he is also the true and better rock of Moses.  It was, of course, quite common to describe God as a “rock,” as we see from Moses’ own context:

“The Rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and upright is he. (Deuteronomy 32:4)

This same imagery would later be adopted by men like David, who proclaimed that “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:2).

So it’s only fitting that Jesus would be described in terms that rang similar to those of the Old Testament:

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:1-4)

What is Paul saying here?  Paul was, of course, addressing a people who had made an idol out of their ethnic heritage and religious tradition.  Israel could look back on their history and celebrate what God had done for their ancestors, but Paul reminds them that these things mean absolutely nothing apart from the Person to whom they point.  If Jesus is the true Rock, then the gospel challenges us to relinquish our trust on the unstable idols we cling to—even if that means letting go of our religious reputations.  The cross represents a new exodus, a new deliverance, not merely from the realm of political captivity but also the realm of sin and self and the subtle tyranny of the familiar.

Social scientist Peter Berger once wrote that the “demand to follow this figure of the crucified one…calls us to an exodus, not only out of Egypt of social mythology but also out of the Zion of religious security.  The exodus takes us out of our holy city, out past the scene of cross and resurrection, and beyond the desert in which God is waiting.  In this desert, all horizons are open.”

Moses struck the rock and water flowed from its side.  So too, was Jesus struck in the side by the soldier’s spear, and while observing the cross John watched as blood and water flowed down (John 19:34).  He is indeed the true Rock, from whom we find sustenance in the arid desert in which we currently reside.

What is this “water” meant to represent?  In John’s gospel, the “living water”—the same water he offers a woman by a well in Sychar (John 4)—represents the Holy Spirit.  At the Feast of Tabernacles—one of the Jews’ customary feasts—Jesus says:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39)

In the desert God followed them through cloud and fire; now Jesus promises that God would reside with them personally through his Holy Spirit.

And Jesus is also the true and better Bread.  Moses and the Israelites famously ate manna and quail.  But Jesus comes to tell his people that no, he is the true Bread:

32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.  (John 6:32-35)

All of us will look to a thousand other sources for security and joy.  Only Jesus is the Rock (the source of our security) and the true Bread (the source of our satisfaction).  Nothing else truly satisfies.

“Our hearts are restless,” wrote a famous saint, “until they find rest in You.”  Indeed, our hearts are restless, they are hungry, they thirst.  But in Jesus we find satisfaction, and we find a call that stirs us beyond the borders of the familiar, and into a new exodus and toward a greater and better land of Promise.

 

The true and better Moses (Hebrews 3-4)

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For me, one of the most compelling things about Christianity is its coherence—that the pieces of God’s story come together to form a whole.  The Bible isn’t a bunch of different stories collected between two covers; it’s one story, from beginning to end, and it’s a story about Jesus.

THE EDGE OF PROMISE

As I was reading the story of Moses this past week, I was struck by the fact that though the Pentateuch (those first five books of the Bible) is so focused on Israel’s journey to the Promised Land, the people never actually get there.  Moses leads them to the border—though they never actually go in.  It isn’t until the book of Joshua that we see the people actually enter into God’s Promised Land.

The writer of Hebrews notes that neither Moses nor anyone in Israel’s great hall of fame truly experienced the full breadth of God’s promises:

39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39-40)

This side of the resurrection, each of us is a sojourner, an exile, someone wandering toward God’s future yet never truly getting there—yet. 

We catch a hint of this as the book of Deuteronomy winds to a close:

And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, 11 none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land,12 and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.  (Deuteronomy 34:10-12)

Israel, of course, had many prophets who followed Moses.  It may be that they regarded some of these prophets as more or less successful than one another, but ultimately Moses was the man most admired by God’s people.

Except, if we understand how these pieces fit together, then we must conclude that we need a prophet—a true and better Moses—to lead us not merely to the edge of God’s promises, but into them to see them fulfilled.

THE TRUE AND BETTER MOSES

Jesus is the true and better Moses.  The writer of Hebrews picks up on this exact theme, noting that while Moses served God as a servant, Jesus was faithful as a son:

3 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’” (Hebrews 3:3-11)

You may recall that Moses and the Israelites had previously doubted God and refused to enter the land when they saw the Canaanites there.  Their fear—their disbelief—condemned them to their wandering (Numbers 13-14).  They did not at that time get to experience God’s rest, a lesson the writer of Hebrews uses to illustrate the consequences of not turning our focus to Christ.

Jesus promises a better rest, not found only in the land but in the eternal splendor of God’s renewed and restored Kingdom.  The writer of Hebrews takes the word “rest,” applying it not only to the Promised Land of Israel’s history but to the promises of God’s eternal future:

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:8-11)

Jesus is the true and better Moses, whose obedience leads us all into a new world of promise, a renewed and restored creation where perfect joy and perfect justice flow like the fabled milk and honey of Israel’s dreams.

In today’s political and social climate, there are many things that engender fear and disbelief.  But hope engenders hope, and by looking toward God’s glorious future, we are reminded that the battle scars we bear are not exceptions or setbacks to God’s great promise—they are the very reasons for it.  And so we turn, this day and always, to the true and better Moses, to the Savior whose obedience leads us onward into the very heart of promise.

God’s “appalling” mercy (Deuteronomy 34)

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“You cannot conceive, my child, nor can I or anyone, the appalling…strangeness of the mercy of God.”  Graham Greene wrote these words about the fictional characters of his novel Brighton Rock, words meant to underscore God’s unfathomable grace toward even those who’d turned his back on Him.  As a novelist, Greene tended to see something redemptive about the pure love of impure people.  As Christ-followers, we both affirm and challenge this idea: that God does indeed extend an “appalling” mercy toward the broken, though never on the purity of our love, but the purity of his own.

We should therefore view Moses’ mistake not merely as an example of human error, but also of divine grace, of an “appalling” mercy that reminds us of the incredible compassion of God.

We should recall that Moses’ crime went deeper than merely striking a rock he was commanded to speak to.  No; his condemnation was for his failure to uphold the Lord as holy (Numbers 20:12).

But if we read our Old Testament carefully, we should note that Moses is hardly the first to commit such a transgression.  Remember Nadab and Abihu?  These were the sons of Aaron, men who earned their place in history as the men who offered “strange fire” before the Lord:

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace.  (Leviticus 10:1-3)

Don’t miss the reason this penalty falls on them.  God says that he “will be sanctified,” that is, his name will be made holy.  Aaron’s sons disregarded the Lord’s command and did what seemed right in their own eyes.  They failed to uphold the holiness of God.  Moses disregarded the Lord’s command and did what seemed right in his own eyes.  He failed to uphold the holiness of God.

I wonder if this ever crossed Aaron’s mind when he saw what Moses was doing.  Was he remembering his sons?  Did he feel the tears on his cheeks all over again?

But Moses would not share the same fate.  Though barred from entering the Promised Land, Moses would be permitted to see its borders:

Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.

And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.”

So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. 8 And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. (Deuteronomy 34:1-8)

Make no mistake: the reason the author describes Moses’ ongoing vitality was to remove any suggestion that Moses died of natural causes.  His remains were never recovered, most immediately to ensure that even in death Moses never entered the land, but perhaps also to prevent anyone from building a shrine to the memory of a mere man.

Moses’ life was supernaturally taken to fulfill God’s earlier promise.  But Moses also died with the vision of God’s promise laid before him in hill and in valley.  Obviously, Moses did not write down the details of his own death.  Though Moses is the author of the Pentateuch—those first five books of the Bible—a later editor felt it necessary for future readers to know of Moses’ fate, a fate both tragic and merciful, of grace and justice mingled sweet.

Through the progress of God’s revealed story, we know that Moses lost his earthly rewards but not his eternal destiny.  Moses appears alongside Elijah in front of Jesus and his closest followers.  Some even believe Moses will be one of the two witnesses described in Revelation 11.  And regardless of where Moses’ dust now resides, it will one day be gathered together that he might join Israel in the Promised Land when God restores his creation.

These things, too, are further examples of God’s “appalling” mercy.  Appalling because it defies our simply expectation of cause and effect.  And appalling that we, too, might be the recipients of God’s great grace.  That God should die that I might live is an appalling form of mercy, that the righteous should die for sinners like us should never cease to take us aback with its shocking strangeness.  To be given, like Moses, even the smallest glimpse of God’s eternal promise—well, this too is appallingly strange.  Every other major religion relies on the steadfast rules of cause and effect.  The gospel is greater and stranger than that.

Every one of us has made mistakes.  Every one of us has failed to uphold God as holy.  Yet as long as our trust is in the forgiveness offered through the cross, then we, too, might experience God’s appalling mercy, a mercy that lifts us out of the darkness of our shame, and lifts our eyes to a greater horizon ahead.

My will be done (Numbers 20)

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Is there any greater lie that we tell so routinely as: “I accept these terms and conditions?”  Every so often one of my computer programs will undergo some routine software update and, after finishing, will ask that I reaffirm my commitment to their terms and conditions.  Except, like most sane human beings, I have no time whatsoever to scroll through the multi-page document.  I just hit “accept” so I can keep on truckin’, as if Steve Jobs is working from beyond the grave to make liars of us all.

No one reads those terms and conditions.  I think technically the Apple corporation has power of attorney over me.  Except I wouldn’t know, because I just hit “accept” without ever reading the agreement.

God is ferociously and wonderfully holy.  His righteous character provokes our allegiance.  In the story of the exodus, God uses Moses to redeem his people from Egyptian captivity, and uses Moses to lead his people to the Promised Land.  This, as we said, is the central focus of the “Pentateuch,” the first five books of the Old Testament.

Along Israel’s journey, God provides for his people, often using Moses as his instrument for doing so.  In one scene, God commands Moses to strike a rock to produce water for the people (Exodus 17:5-6).  Later, God issues the same command, though with a slight variation:

2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! 4 Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” 6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, 7 and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.”9 And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him. (Numbers 20:2-9)

Moses is now commanded not to strike the rock, but to speak to the rock.  But here’s what happened:

10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.  12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” 13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy. (Numbers 20:10-13)

Moses did not adhere to the terms and conditions.  He struck the rock, contrary to God’s earlier commands.  His penalty?  He would not be permitted to enter the Promised Land.  The penalty sounds devastating, until we again consider the ferocious and awe-inspiring character of God, a God who offers grace yet still demands obedience from his followers—especially those he uses as leaders.

In fact, if we look closely, we find that Moses drifted off course in several areas of leadership:

  • He rebuked the people harshly (v. 10)
  • He took credit for what God was doing (v. 10—“shall we bring water…?”)
  • He lost his temper (v. 11)
  • He disobeyed God (v. 11)

The sum total reveals a lack of trust and a lack of acknowledgment of the true holiness of God.

C.S. Lewis once famously wrote that when we stand before God, there are two and only two kinds of people in the world: those who humbly say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those who proudly say, “My will be done.”  Though a faithful servant, in this moment of his life, Moses took the latter course.  And there will be times when we do the same.

It’s easy to drift into selfishness, isn’t it?  If you’re wondering what this might look like for you, think of it this way: have you ever caught yourself saying or thinking one of the following?

  • I expect credit for my accomplishments.
  • I wish other people wouldn’t get in my way.
  • What I ignore today can be handled tomorrow.

All of us are prone to moments of selfishness and weakness, but the cumulative effect of these thoughts causes us to drift away from holiness and toward our own happiness.  And there is no greater tragedy than self-interest.

And here’s where it gets a little more frightening: Moses’ way of doing things didn’t result in immediate failure.  He was successful.  Water really did come out of the rock.  His consequences lay ahead of him.  I think what this means is there will be times in our lives when we are operating outside the boundaries of God’s character—and things will go just fine.  People may even speak well of us.  But inside we will be sickly and selfish, the consequences of which will eventually leave us desiccated and empty.

This is why the idea of “drifting” is so important. No one drifts toward holiness.  All of us, on our own, drift toward center, drift toward self.  This is why we need the gospel.  The cross shatters our illusions of greatness; it reveals to us the ugliness of our deepest depravity.  But when the cross shatters our wrong self-image, it replaces it with the image of the Son.  In Christ we are granted the power once again to be bent toward God and toward neighbor; we are set free to serve a greater master, and once again experience the power to love someone else.  The cross beckons us to surrender the idol of self-interest, and enables us to finally utter, “Thy will be done.”

 

 

“Summer Slide” (Hebrews 11:23-29)

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It’s called the “Summer Slide” or “Summer Learning Loss.”  If you’re a parent or an educator, you’ve probably experienced it.  When kids leave school for the summer, they tend to lose the information they gained over the year.  Some studies report that when measuring verbal and math skills, some students lose as much as 2-3 grade levels of ability in only three months.

Yikes.  I mean, how long have you or I been out of school now?  Probably a lot longer than three months.  We’ve forgotten a lot.  A lot. 

Educators and professionals report that there are specific strategies for helping children overcome the summer slide—mainly by finding simple ways the brain working over the summer:

“As simple as it sounds, reading books can reverse the summer slide in literacy skills for even the poorest children. Richard Allington, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his colleagues found that giving kids 12 books to read over the summer was as effective as summer school in raising the students’ reading scores….Another study…found that regardless of family income, the effect of reading four to five books over the summer was large enough to prevent a decline in reading-achievement scores from the spring to the fall. Kim’s other finding: children who said they had easy access to books over the summer ended up reading more. So seasonal alarm bells aside, the best way to push back against the summer slide is with your library card.”[1]

Here’s where we’re heading: the “summer slide” can happen to any of us, and I’m not just talking about your ability to help your kids with their math homework.  I’m talking about our spiritual lives.  While faith isn’t about developing a “skill set” like reading or math, there’s a rhythm and a pattern to our walk with God that, when broken, has ripple effects for most of the rest of our lives.

No one’s saying that it’s wrong to take a summer vacation.  No one’s saying it’s wrong to enjoy some time off at your beach house or on the boat.  What we want, however, is for each of us to be as intentional with our spiritual habits as we are about our recreational habits.

This week we’re going to look at Moses, whose shining example is tainted by a single great mistake.  In the book of Hebrews, the unnamed author lists Moses among the many great “heroes” of the faith:

23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.  (Hebrews 11:23-29)

We probably all have an image of Moses from the old Charlton Heston movie.  It is through Moses that God reaches into human history to rescue his people from Egyptian slavery.  This movement out of Egypt—an event we know as the “exodus”—became symbolic of the way that God redeems all his people from the slavery and bondage of sin.

So it is fitting that the writer of Hebrews should use Moses as an example of the kind of faith that we should strive for.  But as we will see, Moses’ record was hardly spotless.  What lessons might we learn?

  • First, we recognize that God’s perfect plan always comes about through imperfect people. All of us are deeply flawed.  It is equally fitting, then, that the writer of Hebrews directs our thoughts to Moses’ faithfulness rather than Moses’ failure.
  • Second, we recognize that God is gracious. Moses’ failure resulted in God’s discipline, but not his full wrath.  Moses is counted among the heroes of faith, and even supernaturally appears alongside Elijah on Jesus’ mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8), so it’s clear that Moses never lost his salvation.
  • Third, these great achievements should also remind us that there are none so great that may not have a moment of failure.  When we find ourselves at our most successful, those may the times when we are most vulnerable.

In the days ahead, we’ll see how the frustrations of leadership prompted Moses to “drift” from his steadfast course—even in a seemingly subtle way.  And it may also reveal the way our own heart attitudes can cause us to drift from holiness in search of our own happiness.

 

[1] Annie Murphy, “Do Kids Really Have ‘Summer Learning Loss?’” Time.com, July 1, 2013, http://ideas.time.com/2013/07/01/do-kids-really-have-summer-learning-loss/