Want

2 Chronicles 26:16

But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

I was reading through emails with Pandora playing in the background. The orchestrated soundtrack of Legends of the Fall came on. This led to a series of Wikipedia clicks tracking down the nostalgia and memories of movies I didn’t understand when they came out and would not care fore now that I know what is actually going on, and since they don’t come in TV versions will never watch. Yet, the reality of these movies touched some part of people. The authors of the books, the directors of the movies, and the patrons of both watched and read as boys lived for themselves and died. As sad tales of want, sin, and life played out in godless detail.

The realities of these stories are not new, if overblown and stereotyped, men and woman have often longed for and wanted. Fixing their eyes on their neighbor’s wife, their father’s affection, their brother’s stuff. Our screens are full of men and women coveting that which isn’t theirs as the foundation for ill will between good guys and bad, lovers, children, the list is long. This is a “tale as old as time”. A woman is tempted to doubt God’s goodness and then desires that which has been denied her. A man knowing God is good, and that the serpent is lying, still chooses to rebel against God’s command knowing the lie for what it was (1 Tim 2:14). Advertisers do not have to work hard to create a heart of discontent, it is fertile soil already prepared!

Yet this want in a man’s is not limited to that which is not Good. Eve noticed that the fruit of the tree was good, that it was pleasing to the eye, God even declared that all of creation even the tree was good. Uzziah, was a godly king, doing what was right in the eyes of God, a lover of the soil, and an accomplished defender of his people. Yet, as he studied and contemplated, he started to think himself good enough to be a priestly king. So, he took his sensor and began his journey content in the knowledge that he was leading his people in righteousness. Wanting a position that was not his cost him his health and his son his faith. His son would never enter the Temple, and his grandson would follow Baal, a safe God. He wanted something good, something beautiful, yet God had appointed a place for it out of his reach. He was discontent with what God had provided.

Many, think that because the thing desired is good, and they can achieve or get it, that a good God would not deny them it. Yet, this is precisely what we see in the history of Uzziah. It is played out across the nation as desire for intimacy, misplaced, destroys marriages and people. As Men set their hearts on those things God has not given them.  Playing out in the church as women of intellect and ability have set their hearts on the pastorate. Men looking for sexual fulfillment look to other men that they might find someone with an equal sexual desire. All because they “want”.

The Psalmist begins with “the Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want”, contenting himself with that which God has supplied in the timing God has supplied it. Jesus is perfection of this, as with all things, content with the carpenter’s life until his time had come. Content with no home to lay his head, even content with disciples who just couldn’t get it. As the season approaches and marketers and friends are focused on creating or meeting our wants, will Christian’s simply stand with the Psalmist and say “I shall not want”, and let themselves be blessed by what their master gives them?

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Government Control

2 Chronicles 11:15 ESV

And he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat idols and for the calves that he had made.

The religious temper of a society is a volatile and powerful force for good or evil in a society. Many nations have found that to be a reality that must be addressed head on. Many others have chosen to quietly manipulate and pressure religious institutions until they capitulate to being puppets of the government.

Recently the Orthodox church in Ukraine is trying to separate its self from the Russian Orthodox Church that it might no longer be tied spiritually to Russia, seeing it as a persistent threat from Russia against its sovereignty. The Chinese have recently gained the power to appoint the Catholic bishops inside its boarders so that they may control the people more affectively. The Chinese governments lagging opposition to unregulated churches has recently been renewed in an effort to better monitor and control the people of China and maintain its own position, as the communist party continues to become a greater minority in its own country.

Such efforts and directions from government leaders are not new to the people of God. Jeroboam feared the continued influence of the Davidic line and therefor chose to abandon the right worship of God modifying it to become something under his control. He expanded worship then to include not just his own calves, that he gave the name of the Lord to, but also the “goat idols”. Then began the exodus of priests to the southern Kingdom. Jeroboam then simply chose priests more inline with his own beliefs and moved on, this should serve as a quick note about finding those people that tickle our itching ears. It worked. Jeroboam solidified his kingdom in his hands, the Northern Kingdom would never reunite with the southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom would go on to be the wealthier of the two nations, more cosmopolitan and economically sound, until God removed it.

It is a joy and a pleasure to part of a people so feared and fought against that every nation on earth seeks to hinder us in some way. The United States Government is not a lot different. Using tax codes and the Johnson Amendment to manipulate and push pastors to speak only so far in a political direction lest they manipulate their congregations to actually vote giving preference to those rich individuals able to buy add space and sway the electors, as the more American form of spurring a populace to vote. Christians are not to be bought or coerced. The Christian worldview is one that requires an educated individual praying through the issues and working through the arguments. This done in context of other brothers and sisters in Christ. Addressing issues with our neighbors not with anger or malice but with the weapons God has given us, his very words. A Facebook post to be seen by our “friends” who haven’t blocked us is not such a thing. The church has the capacity and ability to change nations, to tear down strong holds, to break down the very gates of hell, yet we exercise this ability through prayer and the word of God.

The anemic nature of our prayer services has led us to the place of greatest vulnerability and divisiveness hear in these United States. It is no coincident that as churches have stopped gathering for Wednesday and Sunday prayer services our nation has fallen further into idolatry and division. As we have left our neighbors to hid behind doors with screens as their “friends” let us as a church gather once again to pray for our neighbors as we talk with them over fences. Find the name of your actual neighbor and ask your church to pray for you as you actually talk with them about Christ. And then do it again and again. The power of God unleashed in the prayers of his saints gathered together is something that makes every nation on earth quake. Let the gates of Hell quake as the army of God gathers. Or will you O Man try to rush the gates alone? Know this Uriah found himself alone in front of the enemy’s gates, and then he found himself dead!

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

The Next Generation

1 Chronicles 29:14 ESV

“But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.

Few things are more defining and telling of men as their final remarks. In Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Gimli and Legolas are noting the structure of the city they find themselves in and note how beautiful it is and the expert workmanship it begins with, but then note that the workmanship deteriorates as it comes to completion. This they note is a normal pattern for man. The reality of things unraveling as men draw further from the idealistic beginning, as passion and excitement give way to determination and grinding perseverance to see a project complete. As one generation finds itself unable to complete the task set before it and realizes that the commission must be given to the next, what words are to be used to pass a passion and desire capable of holding a generation to the measuring line when those with the initial vision and call are no longer present?

As Tolkien noted this is a continual problem in human societies. One generation has found itself unable to transfer the passion to the next and with a lack of passion and clarity of purpose the structures, physical and spiritual, begin to crumble and show a lack of purpose. This seen in the privilege to by flowers for the love of my life or the duty to do so on our anniversary. The prayer of David from 1 Chronicles 29:10-22 is such a grasping and holds the freight of a man of passion love for his God and for the Kingdom he leaves behind.

The passionate desire for his people to continue the walk that they have begun bleeds through the words of his prayer. As he longs for his son and his people to maintain the faith and hold to the calling they have received. Yet, he knows that nothing he can tell them will amount to anything. That he has no power over the future. In light of this he appeals to the one who is sovereign. This is why it is David’s prayer, not his address, because he knows only God can change hearts. This focus on Passion verse results is seen in his prayer for Solomon specifically. As he prays in verse 19 that he will have a whole heart for gods commandments, law, statute and testimonies, only after this, does he ask that he may build the temple. This reality is also why Holiness and Godliness are the requirements for serving as Deacon and Elder of the church first. If the heart is right the rest will fall into place. Pragmatics are always secondary to spiritual realities. Why?

This is the focus of the verse we began with. Pragmatics are nothing and money is the chief pragmatic. David is declaring what he wants his people to understand at the heart of the matter. God is sovereign. As such they must remain true to him and seek no other. This in spite of how wise and reasonable it might appear to do otherwise. To remain fast in the hand of God. Content with poverty if it comes, and riches if they come. Recognizing that what is “mine” is only mine to give when my master desires it to be given to someone else. How do you pass a passion to the next generation? Live it out yourself, speak it out yourself, write it out yourself, do all you can to communicate it and then lean on the arm of the Sovereign God who with but a word spoke the cosmos into being, and know that his “arm is not shortened”(Numbers 11:23).

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Administration

1 Chronicles 19:14 ESV

So David reigned over all Israel, and he administered justice and equity to all his people.

As I drove the length and breadth of a few states one reality seemed to dominate the countryside, so and so for (insert office). Turning from one news pod cast to another the impending election and all it could mean for the United States dominated news coverage. Our nations landscape and air waves are dominated by the one reality that we as a free people must choose who will lead us. As I come to scripture it is interesting to see what issue dominates the evaluation of an administration. What issues were the writers of the biblical text concerned with recording as they evaluate a King and his courts government.

The verse above comes at the end of a chapter in which the physical safety of the people of Israel was assured by the Kings defense policies and the chapter previous was a seal of approval on the governments religious policies as David is promised the son who would always sit on the throne before God. From here we find that David “administered justice and equity to all his people”. The courts and how laws are applied to the populace were a dominate evaluator of the nation’s government but that only after the physical safety of the nation was secured.

The verse following this verse tell us how this was accomplished. How the borders were secured, justice was administered, and religious stability achieved. Verses fifteen through sixteen tell us that all this was accomplished by getting certain men in the right positions.  No, they did not elect them, yet the Kings ability to accomplish the mission of God for his nation was only accomplished by placing certain men in positions necessary for the goal. They were a collection of fallible men with personal vendettas and varying morality, yet they were used by God to accomplish his purposes.

We are given a far more difficult job as Christians in a democratic state. We are called by God to pray hard and research well, that we might act as David in putting the right men and women in the right positions that we might flourish under their leadership and administration. As we attempt this feat, we must recognize that the issues have not changed much. Religion, defense, and the courts, are still the dominate concerns of the people. We might add economics to our list but I would hesitate to say that this should be a primary consideration for Christians. If we have the freedom to exercise our faith as God has convicted us, the safety to build our homes and cities, and the firm assurance that justice will be administered equitably, a people need not fear economic deterioration.

The prayer of every Christian is that God would give us the government we need, not the one we want, and not the one we deserve. God has providentially worked to give this nation Christian men and women to vote in and pray for its election process. In his divine providence he has given this nation you to pray for, evaluate and vote for it.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Justice

2 Peter 3:8 ESV

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

As I walk to and from work, wondering how long God will put up with American pretensions. As our nation constantly sits in judgment of God and his ways. Calling good evil and evil good. I wonder if it will be in my lifetime, my children’s, or perhaps my grandchildren’s. Not even thinking of the final judgement, but simply the judgment that the nation I love deserves, for the killing of babies, the mutilation of bodies, and the abuse of confused children. Peter makes it very clear that I do not know the timing of God. I do not know the extent that he will let the wickedness of this nation ripen as he did with those nations that who held the land before the Israelites came.

Reading though the kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, readers of holy scripture, come to Ahab and Jezebel. The wickedness of this couple is of mythic proportions and even that is probably selling them short. Yes, they were successful leaders, the nation thrived, economically, under their care. They even enjoyed gardening. This led them to murder Naboth and take his land that they might enjoy what he would not sell. As God executed his decree against him, through Jehu, this line is quoted by Jehu, “As surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons-declares the LORD- I will repay you on this plot of ground.” (2 Kings 9:26) Jehu then throughs the dead body of Joram (not Ahab) on the ground his family had purchased with the blood of Naboth.  Jehu continues this purging with the death of the King of Judah (Ahab’s grandson), Jezebel (Ahab’s wife), and all the royal sons. God waited a generation to give justice to Naboth and he did not save Naboth from Ahab.

He did not save Uriah from David, he did not save the priests of Nob from Saul. God allows the fruit of the wicked to ripen, even as the righteous are slain. Yet, how do I call such men righteous? These righteous men are only men better than those who killed them. To be righteous before God they must hold to a righteousness alien to themselves. For even these “righteous” men are saved not through their works, offerings, or burnt sacrifices, but saved by trusting in the savior to come. A savior who was to die a far more scandalous death than they, that they might live forever with him. God does judge the wicked. He does so in his time and not ours. Even as some would look with earthly eyes and judge with feeble sense the moving’s of an eternal God, let the Christians take joy in their sufferings, recognizing that God has given them eternity with him, and calls them sons and heirs of a Kingdom, they did not deserve or earn!

“Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain.”

 – William Cowper, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way”

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO