dress and answer... like a man.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

“Dress for action like a man;

I will question you, and you make it known to me."

Job 40:6-7

The LORD puts Job's objections to his pain to the holy scrutinty of God's wisdom, power, and justice. Job has already admitted he cannot answer God in argument (Job 40:3-5). He promises silence as God continues to reveal His power to Job. As God continues explaining Job's own weakness to him by describing even greater power over the natural world, Job can only stay silent and take in the truth of God's revelation in contemplative worship.

God warns Job that this is no easy take to "hear from God". It would require all of Job's strength, courage, and manly vigor to engage in this exercise. Just like Jacob wrestled with God in his tent throught the ngiht, God would now contend in conversation with Job. But he needed to "man up" and get ready for the effort. This was going to be quite a work out. God just asked Job to put on his big boy britches. Job had questions for God no more. But now God would take Job to school with questions of his own.

As God continued to pummel Job with hard hitting instances of the power of the natural world that the Lord had made, Job's own place in the scheme of God's created world became more apparent. Job's weakness was as woefully insufficient as God's creative and sustaining power was great. The God Who made and controlled the greatest beasts on earth and creatures of the deep sea vastly eclipsed Job's power. Job learned about the majesty of God's power as God kept questioning him with instances that showed Job's human frailty. And that faith that Job needed to maintain kept maturing to a repentance that acknowledged his own wrongs in demanding answers from the Almighty. GOD was the answer. GOD was all that Job needed. Like a man, he could not prevail against God, but was blessed in humble, submissive, repentant worship. 

worship motivations

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;

I will sing praises to you among the nations.

For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!

Let your glory be over all the earth!

Psalm 57:9-11

David's longing was to lift up the greatness of God, to let God's glory be known all over the world. There were two ways David did this. FIrst, he gave thanks to God. This was a public acknowledgement of God's great care of him. This psalm was written while David was on the run. He was in hiding. His life was in peril. To publically thank God came at great risk. But nothing would keep David's heart from worship.

The second way in which David would lift up the worship of the Lord was through singing. David was a singer/songwriter at heart. Most of the book of Psalm is attributed to him. He worshiped through singing all his life. And he was always ready to praise God in this way. He was willing to do so publically because God deserved that kind of worship.

There were also two reasons behind this public worship of thanksgiving and song. First, David was motivated by God's steadfast love. It was greater than any human love. It was poured out to him time and again, particularly as he was on the run. It was a grace that literally kept David alive. Grace was the reason to sing.

David also was moved to worship because of God's faithfulness to him. He could not always trust any human being. He could ALWAYS trust God. God's faithfulness provided David with life, protection, and hope. David also knew God's faithfulness to Him promises. David had been anointed king. He was chosen by God and told he would be king. The Lord was faithful to keep and protect David as a result. So when David worshiped a faithful God, it was rooted in David's belief in the Word of God as true. God shows Himself always gracious and faithful. Our hearts should thus always long to see our God lifted up!

leadership lessons from thrown stones

When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came he cursed continually. And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.

2 Samuel 16:5-6

At the lowest point of David's experience as king in Jerusalem, as his throne is overtaken by Absalom his son and he must flee out of the city for safety, this strange little man named Shimei comes out of the city to curse David. He runs along the top of the ridge as David's retreating force marches below, vacating Jerusalem. And as he follows along he shouts curses at the king from above, pelting everyone with stones and kicking dirt down upon them in showers as they go. It makes the retreat that much harder. It is literally a case of adding insult to injury.

David's men are tired of it. Any one of David's warriors would gladly dispatch the annoyance! But David holds them back. Shimei is a distraction, and in David's humility at the moment, he accepts that God may have sent the weird raging dust kicker for a reason. The real issue was not a little dirt and rock. The kingdom was fallen. The tirade of one lone angry little crackpot was not significant in that light.

Drifting into putting energy on irritating distractions can pull leaders away from bigger issues. And this a leadership moment for David. He shows he is still kingly, even if he has lost a kingdom temporarily. His choice for mercy and for focus on the real issues proves that David is still the leader that Israel needs, even if the nation does not think that they want him anymore.

holiness on my mind

“You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, Holy to the Lord.’ And you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue. It shall be on the front of the turban. It shall be on Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts. It shall regularly be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord."

Exodus 28:36-38

The High Priest in ancient Israel wore a constant reminder of his task to intercede for Israel on His forehead. On his turban, tied with an azure cord, was the golden plate inscribed with a strong reminder: Holy to the LORD. When Aaron began his day at the tabernacle, this reminder jolted him as he carefully donned priestly vestments. And with each offering and sacrifice, he was deemed able to offer to God for the people only BECAUSE that holy reminder was on his forehead. The priests were to be hyper aware of God's holiness.

The symbolism of that holy reminder of God's holiness on the head of the high preist is instructive on how much we should value God's holiness. Holiness was literally on the head of the priest. Shouldn't God's holiness be always on our minds? Are we aware of the power, greatness, holiness and majesty of our God? If we are, it is impossible to yawn ourselves awake and go through just the dull motions of a lukewarm faith!

As I contemplate this, an old worship song comes to mind:

When I look into Your holiness

When I gaze into Your loveliness

When all things that surround

Become shadows in the light of You

When I've found the joy of reaching Your heart

When my will becomes enthralled in Your love

When all things that surround

become shadows in the light of You

I worship You, I worship You

The reason I live

Is to worship You.

generating controversy

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Luke 4:14-15

Jesus began His ministry as a teaching rabbi. He became something of a celebrity, preaching first in His home province of Galille where He traveled from town to town, teaching in the synagogues and being wildly accepted by all who heard Him teach. We can only speculate as to the content of this very early ministry, but Luke does record one "service" in Jesus' home town of Nazareth at the end of Luke Four. In this encounter Jesus proclaims Himself to be Isaiah's prophesied Messiah. Only this time, the home town crowd is volatile and violent, ushering Him outside the city in force in order to execute Him for blasphemy by tossing Him off the edge of a cliff. But His time had not come. Jesus calmly walked away through the midst of the angry mob. He was controversial from the very start.

I have an operating principle for Christian teaching... the truth generates controversy. It requires a response. Jesus gets a strong reaction both favorable or against. He is never just mildly received. He never received a casual handshake and head nodded "Nice sermon" as people exited the building. When a group of His followers are not moved by Him or the teaching of His gospel, something has to be wrong. That is my observation from the gospels. It is the story of the early church in the New Testament. And it is why in the book of Revelation Jesus warns His church that He would rather have His church be either hot or cold. Lukewarm Christians make Him nauseaus! 

Controversial Teacher and Lord,

Keep the scandal of the gospel burning in me. Keep me scorching in the scandal of Your cross. Never let me sink to the coolness of the status quo, content to just "be" a Christian going through the motions. I'm not one who needs to lay still and soak it in comfortable climates, though it is my temptation. I never want to create casual Christian comfort in Your assembled saints. I want to see Jesus glorified, even if it means the gospel sparks reaction against You.

Amen

a family resemblance

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Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

2 Corinthians 7:1

Paul's reminder to the Corinthians is something to consider today. The promises of God are an encouragement to love God, obey Him, and fear Him properly, all in order to live holy lives. Paul quotes from the relational promises of the Law: "I will make my dwelling among them... I will be their God and they shall be my people" (see 2 Corinthians 6:16). He also pairs that with God's call to be holy as He is among Israel citing Isaiah 52:11. He ends his "promise list" with God's reminder of paternal care, liberally quoting principles found in Exodus 4:22 and possibly Jeremiah 31:9. Paul's point was that even the Old Testament Law promised intimate, family-like relationship within the context of obedience to god that sought to emulate His holiness. If we are indeed God's children, we must be like our Father.

The motivation for holiness is the love of our Father. We are His children and since God is holy and loves His children, we should be holy and love God our Father. That is our "family resemblance". It is what God longs to see in us. It pleases our God AND it brings happiness to us when we are actively bringing our bodies and spirits into holy compliance out of the respect we have for God's holiness.

Nothing Too Hard

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?"

Jeremiah 32:26-27

You spoke the universe into being,

a task so big we cannot

see the end.

Yet You stooped to form mankind

from dust, with tenderness You made

a friend.

You walked with them in the cool

of each day, content as Creator

with Adam and Eve.

Yet in that day when they hid from You,

You cared even in their sin,

You did not leave.

You raised a people from Abraham's

nearly dead seed, and blessed them

in covenant.

They took Your gifts ... Law, Land, and Love

yet turned away to

what they'd want.

You drove sinners out, first from Eden,

then from the Land, as lawbreakers

are always judged.

You brought them back, restored 

fortunes and families and covenant in

Your great love.

You sent Your Son to redeem us all

and set us free from all the damage

that sin can do.

He gives us life, and hope... and peace.

We are made new. Nothing is

too hard for You.