a promise between thieves

But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
Genesis 31:24

God intervened in this broken, dysfunctional, manipulative family relationship. He helped two highly dominant deceivers make peace. Jacob is the original slick salesman. He had a nickname: deceiver. But he met his match in his father-in-law Laban. Laban used Jacob and changed the rules of the relationship beginning with a bait-and-switch wedding night, and continuing for decades. Jacob was tired of the constant insecurity of being used.

When Jacob had seen enough of this treatment, his plan was to sneak away with his family and herds under the cover of night and return to his father Isaac in Canaan. But that deceit was discovered and by the time Laban confronts Jacob, God intervenes to cool down the irate father-in-law who himself does not like being deceived!

There are several lessons to be learned from this moment. One is that God will use our own sins to get our attention. The natural course of consequence of sin is a mechanism that can draw the conscience back to God. After Jacob had spent so much time being deceived and continuing to deceive, he was ready to abandon the practice. From here forward in his story he has abandoned his constant manipulative behaviors. It took being manipulated to understand his own need for repentance.

In the end, Jacob and Laban made a promise to not treat each other this way any longer. Yes, it was an uneasy covenant between thieves, but it did reset the relationship. Jacob moved on to live back in the Promised Land with a large family. After settling these sinful differences with his father-in-law, Jacob actually begins pursuing faith duties with his own family, worshiping God in a new and better way. The reconciliation of the horizontal relationship, abandoning selfish ways of living with people, enhanced Jacob's relationship with the Lord.

new king and kingdom

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
Matthew 21:43

Jesus' own prophecy predicting the direction of the kingdom of God is one explanation for how and why I am able to write this reflection today. The kingdom of God is a worldwide phenomenon. It was not localized just to Israel. His gospel changes the world. When the leaders of Israel rejected Jesus, it only served to expand the reach of the gospel. The kingdom grows in the lives of the people who produce its fruits.

This does not mean that God has abandoned Israel. He has not. If anything the prophetic promises to Israel are more clear with Jesus' words. The church knows there is a future role for Israel. Jesus is Messiah for the Jews. Jesus will return to rule in Jerusalem. The New Testament ends with clear teaching of future events occurring there. There are clear Old Testament predictions that must also occur in the Holy Land because God does not lie.

But the "mystery" of the church is still on God's primary agenda until the times are fulfilled. The kingdom must then move forward in fruitful living among the followers of Jesus. The world needs the good news. Jews and Gentiles are still one in the Body of Christ. And it is this kingdom that is our culture... not mega-church attendance to programs, not Christian publishing, not conservative politics, not hip Christian radio or evangelical entertainment that sadly defines my generation. I am called as a subject of King Jesus to live in His kingdom and proclaim the gospel so that He may rule in the hearts of His people.

civil authority and the Christian

Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
Romans 13:2

It is quite interesting that Paul wrote these admonitions to the church at the very center of an authoritarian empire. Rome was a military dictatorship to her conquered lands, even if she was a kind of republic to her own citizens. The government she enforced came to the people at the end of a powerful sharp sword. The citizens of the empire may have known unprecedented peace and a high degree of prosperity, but it came at a price. Caesar was worshiped as a god. The military was an oppressive force. Taxes were high and payment was enforced ruthlessly.

Yet Paul commanded the Roman church to respect the authority of the empire's rule. His reason seems shocking: God instituted the government over them by His sovereign hand. To be subject to Rome's system was to be obedient to the will of God. And to resist the civil authorities was to invite judgment from God Who set it up as His plan. Paul even elaborates the reasons specifically further in his explanation by demanding submission at every level: payment of taxes, handing over revenue, giving respect, and honoring leaders (Romans 13:7).

We are in an election cycle (again) in the United States. It discourages me to see the endless blame and attack strategy that is 21st century American politics. But it is the government that God has instituted over me, like it or not, so I must respect it. So when I vote this coming Tuesday morning, I will be respecting what God has made. I can participate in it as one voice with my own small contribution of one vote. And I must respect that outcome as the wisdom of God because "there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God". Romans 13:1 is true right now even as it was true when it was written about a brutal pagan empire.

God can handle rejection.

I know your sitting down
and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
Isaiah 37:28

God is not surprised, diminished, depressed or incapacitated by anyone's rejection of Him. God can handle it quite well. He has a sovereign plan in place to deal with everyone justly, including those who fight against Him with active rejection.

When Sennacherib came up against Jerusalem with the brutal power of the Assyrian army as his threat, he came mocking God. He ridiculed king Hezekiah but worst of all, he dared Israel's God to save them, as no pagan god had ever turned back the Assyrian superpower. The pride and swagger in Sennacherib's boasts seemed all too true to the citizens of Jerusalem. A brutal army outside the city gates prepared to bring Jerusalem to ruin. But the king of Assyria had never encountered the true God of heaven and earth. In response to a passionate prayer from Judah's king, God would humiliate the boastful Assyrian dictator.

God was intimately familiar with the situation. It did not catch Him off guard. Sennacherib's every move was God's intimate knowledge. He was well aware not only of the mocking voice of the Assyrian king, but also of his greatest weakness. In one night the entire army died in its sleep. And the Assyrian king, spared with only his life, quietly returned home impotent, only to die by assassination by the hands of his own sons later that year. God knew the raging of this king. He knew how to stop it. And He justly saw an end that would assert the glory of the God of Israel.

So over every person, institution, or movement that rages against God, the Lord is absolutely sovereign. Even the rejection of God by those who falsely trust human autonomy is orchestrated by God's hand for the ends of His glory and praise. When I see it in my day, I will be reminded of the humiliation of an ancient Assyrian loudmouth.

change & decay

Man wastes away like a rotten thing,
like a garment that is moth-eaten.
Job 13:28

Let's just say that this week has been a season reminding me of this truth. Sometimes the decay of life accelerates for some reason. You watch cherished parts of life change and crumble. It isn't evil... it is just part of the way the world is ever since sin changed things from God's perfect design for us. God is above it, somehow, in ways my eyes don't always see in the splintering decay.

The words of this old hymn are an insightful comfort to my soul:

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see—
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.


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shown

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
Psalm 19:1-2

I have always really loved to study astronomy. I can sit outside under a night sky and marvel at the work of God. It amazes me to pull out my telescope and view the moon up close or to see Saturn's rings live with my own eyes. We live in a vast universe filled with the wonders of God's creative mind.

I believe that I have "scriptural" encounters with God. By that I mean that reading the Bible provides for me the opportunity (I believe the only opportunity that I should actively seek and promote) to "hear" the voice of God. But I also know that I can see God in creation. Some of my most life-stirring thoughts and confirmation about God have come just from such times. I vividly remember the summer of 1980, laying on my back in a mountain meadow and watching meteors streak across the Milky Way. I was in awe of God then. I know I celebrated God's creative power when I held my first wild brook trout in my hand. I've seen God's handiwork in the shimmer of the northern lights. I know God's power in the pounding cold of a mountain waterfall. I have been immersed in the depths of His love in the rolling ocean surf. I have been amazed at His diverse creativity snorkeling with colorful reef fish surrounding me. I have marveled at His greatness in the beauty of a desert canyon. I understood first in a way that I still cannot fully put into words what it is for God to be my Father when I held each of my newborn children close to my own beating heart. Creation confirms what His Word reveals.

Lord,
I see You work in this world. I am astounded at the universe You simply muttered into meaning! I hold Your greatest thoughts in my hands when I open Your Word and listen to You there. Thank You for being such as accessible, meaningful, powerful Lord!
Amen


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people forget

And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side

Judges 8:34

I read these episodes in the Book of Judges and am incredulous. How could Israel so quickly forget what God had done for them? It seems crazy, as if mass amnesia affected them all. Exactly how does a nation forget its recent history?

This text has a clue. The reason Israel could so easily forget is that their hearts were idolatrous. They turned time and again to the worship of false gods. The text says they went after Baal with whorish hearts (Judges 8:33). A wild energy was devoted to the pursuit of false gods. They lusted after them like sex. And that misplaced affection led the nation to reinterpret their recent history, telling it without God present in it.

Spiritual decline begins not so much in absent-minded forgetfulness, but in deliberate fixing of the heart on an idol. And as that idol starts to direct the heart, God is further and further from the thoughts. Soon He is no longer even a memory as the new idol holds us in fascination and demands our worship as it controls us.

So this warning about the process of spiritual decline is personally instructive. It keeps us clear and aware of the dangers. We will worship something if we do not worship the Lord. That is the big repeated theme of the book of Judges.