I thrive on comparisons.
In fact, I compare way too much.
I compare myself to others very easily…I “enjoy” comparing myself to
those that aren’t as skilled as me, but I hate it when I feel inadequate to
others. It hurts my self-esteem, and
often times keeps me from doing things that God would find honoring. But also, many times I try harder because I
can show them!
I found in Ecclesiastes 4:4 how wrong this thinking truly is
for me:
“And I saw that all
labor and all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the
wind.”
One of my books now that I’m reading through is called When People are Big and God is Small. Too many times I’m so worried about what man
thinks of me instead of what God thinks of me.
Too many times, we as a whole, find ourselves absorbed in the opinions
of this world and trying to impress our neighbors, or trying to out-do them. Our focus is on man, fearing their opinion
more than God’s.
It is comforting to me to know that this isn’t something
that’s new to God. In fact, He was
totally used to this with the Israelites.
As I read through Deuteronomy, I am so encouraged through the
Israelites’ lack of obedience and faith…not necessarily because I can compare
to that (I will admit…I do feel better sometimes…) but rather because I see
that God is still patient and compassionate.
The Israelites refused to go into the land of Canaan because
they feared the people more than God’s
comforting words of victory and blessing.
So, as a punishment, God kept them wandering in the wilderness for 40
years until a whole new generation of people (aside from a couple originals)
were left.
This brings another twist to my post…one that I ponder more
and more. I understand that God hates
sin, and I understand that God wants to really eliminate the sin that separates
Heaven and Earth…but many times I don’t always understand how God works with
sin. My eyes are opened more and more to
this concept…and I hope that what I say next not only makes sense, but is
accurate and doctrinally correct.
The idea of God as a purifier brings great comfort to me,
knowing He holds me in a fire to purge the evil from my life. However, what does this always look like in
life? Could it simply be a trial that we
go through individually? How does God
really purge the evil from our lives? I
was thinking of this too micro…too personally.
True, I am going through individual growth and refining, but what about
us as a whole? In Deuteronomy 13, and
17:7-13, we see God commanding the nation of Israel to destroy towns and stone
people that have strayed from the Law.
He commanded the people to intervene on His behalf. Now I know God is fully capable of blotting
out corrupt people on His own (Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Flood), so why would
He command Israel to intervene?
Would God call us today to intervene in the purifying of our
nation?
Now mind you, this is all pre-Christ…but I do believe God is
the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Just because the Law is different, doesn’t mean God is. Doesn’t mean God’s meaning behind His calling
is different. What was the purpose of
the Law? For Israel, it was to remind
them of their salvation from captivity in Egypt. What is the purpose of the Law
post-cross? To remind us of the
salvation we have in Jesus. That purpose
still stands for us today…just in a different way.
So, what was the purpose of God purging the nation through
stoning and destruction? To keep His
people pure and blameless, seeking Him above all things (to us, this seems
drastic, but in God’s eyes, this was the way to eliminate sin). There must be a deeper meaning in God
commanding the Israelites to do it…it appears to be an accountability, but also
they witness and experience the punishment in a way to keep them from falling
into it as well…I’ll keep pondering.
But without getting into politics and our nation in too
depth…how would purging the sin in our world today happen? How would God use us and command us to purge
evil? This actually is my prayer,
because I don’t have the answer. I will say
right now, that I am not going to lead a group to stone sinners and destroy
towns. (I might as well start with destroying
myself at that rate).
However, I will fall on Romans 13:8 for an answer: “Owe
nothing to anyone- except for your obligation to love one another. If you
love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.” Times today aren’t any different…we are still
wicked, seeking and creating other gods instead of the One True God, and
forgetting the good things God has done for us.
But because times aren’t different, we are still being called in some
way to intervene…I just don’t know how.
Thankfully, we have the hope that Jesus is coming back to
make all things right. He will purge the
sin completely from this world eventually, but I do believe that we are being
used to begin this.
Philippians 1:4-6 “In
all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your
partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of
this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until
the day of Christ Jesus.”
In the mean time, seek the LORD above all things. We may not agree in our world of how God
works, but unless we set aside everything of this world and focus on things
above, we won’t understand God’s way of justice, and if we don’t begin to
understand it how can we delight and anticipate its coming?
Proverbs 28:5 “Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek
the LORD understand it fully.”
Seek justice and trust God’s methods of implementing
it. I love you all.
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