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| Blue Ridge Fitness Center in Burnsville, NC - part of Blue Ridge Regional Hospital - part of the acclaimed Mission Hospital system in Asheville. Exercise machines, a walking course, racquetball, a therapy pool, and a physical therapy center are part of the offerings here. |
Rest / Sit Down / Consider: We are called to these moments of reflection in today's readings. In Judges 3 and 4 God gives the continuously rebelling Israelites moments of rest. This is time to think...consider...what you, your leaders, and others are doing. Consider what is happening and why. The first enslavement to Cush was for 8 years; the people cry out to God; Othniel is raised up by God as the 1st judge; God gives rest to the people for 40 years; they rebel and do evil again; the second enslavement to Moab is for 16 years; the people cry out to God; God raises up Ehud; God gives rest to Israel for 80 years. The time of trouble doubles for the second offense...But God...in His mercy...doubles the time of rest as well. Time to sit down and consider. Sin is ultimately enslaving and deadly; the "thrill of rebellion" is only for a moment. Psalm 48:9-14 tells what the Israelites should have done in these moments of grace and mercy: "We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness...According to Your Name, O God, is Your Praise... (so we)...Walk about Zion...Go all around her...Count her towers...Mark well her bulwarks...Consider her palaces...that....you may tell it to the generation following...for...this is God...our God forever and ever...He will be our guide even to death." But no. They indulge in pagan worship, intermarry with unbelievers, focus on selves and world...forget God. In Luke 14:25-35, Jesus again warns His listeners that each should: Sit down first...count the cost, whether he has enough to finish...whether he is able...to forsake all and be My disciple.
My Lessons and Applications: This is one of the greatest lessons God has taught me. In times of peace (always relative on this earth), take time (sit down), listen (consider) prepare yourself (study), gather with other believers (worship, praise, support, encourage.) These are so very essential for the trials that WILL come. Some will be disastrous and very difficult, shaking your faith to its foundations. This time of rest will enable us to persevere, to walk with God, to honor Him through it all. Notice in Judges 3 at the beginning. God was bringing / allowing trouble for the Israelites by permitting enemy nations to remain...to test His people...to prepare His people for war who had not seen war...to see if they would obey Him when the blessings were removed. Notice this throughout the Bible...with the temptations of Christ, Peter, each of us as believers. We are also often given many more years of rest to prepare for the times of trouble. How will we handle both the rest and the trial? Will we be ready? Will we persevere? Will we honor God? Jesus is warning us: This will not be easy. Sit down and consider. Count the cost. Do you have enough to finish? Are you able?
Patterns of Pagans and Pilgrims: They have continued in their - and our - usual pattern: doing evil in the sight of the LORD, serving/worshipping/bowing down/ to other gods, have been sold by angry God, have cried out to God for help, have been sent a deliverer by God, God has given them rest. They forget God, and the pattern continues.
My Lessons / Application: Breaking the Pattern / the Mold - But God - This is what God does. He shows us the better way, His way, not the way of the world. The world of historical Judaism devalued women. God raised up Deborah, Jael, Esther, Rahab, Naomi, Ruth and others to turn their misogyny upside down. Biblical Judaism fell into the tedious minutiae of traditions set up by the ruling Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes that had supplanted God's law. Jesus turns this upside down. As the Lord of the Sabbath, He lifts the additional burdens these "religious" leaders have put on the people and places it directly on Himself, bearing it to Calvary for them, for us. He sends out His disciples with His Holy Spirit, and "these turn the world upside down" (Luke 17:6). He reminds us that our life as His disciples will require some very hard times and decisions. We will share in His sufferings (Matt 20:22), we will forsake all but Him (Luke 14:33.) We are called to break out of the pattern, the mold of the world. Our perspectives, our lives, our calling are to point to the better Way.
"The Christian life is stamped by "moral, spontaneous originality", consequently the disciple is open to the same charge that Jesus Christ was, viz., that of inconsistency. But Jesus Christ was always consistent to God, and the Christian must be consistent to the life of the Son of God in him, not consistent to hard and fast creeds. Men pour themselves into creeds, and God has to blast them out of their prejudices before they can become devoted to Jesus Christ."
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
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