Verklempt

At we approach worship today we are asked to reflect on:

1 Samuel 2:9

“He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,

    but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness,

    for not by might shall a man prevail."

This verse divides the world between "his faithful ones" and the "wicked".  There is nothing in-between.  One is "guarded" and the other is "cut off" in darkness:

• The word for "cut off" (damam) is the sound one makes when too shocked to speak intelligently ("Verklempt" might be a good modern Yidish equivalent).  
• The word for "guard" (shamar) is first used in scripture for the job that God assigned to man.  That to keep the garden.

Imagine please the mighty man that suddenly finds that the might, on which he depended, was suddenly overpowered and insufficient.  This could be a robber coming from a dark corner, the doctor speaking the dreaded diagnosis, or unseen virus claiming a loved one.

It is hard for a mighty man to accept what a farmer knows.  That your success is dependent on God.  And, yes, if you were wondering, we are the seed!  

Enjoy being planted.

The Kindness of the Hangman

This week we are asked to meditate on:

Psalm 96:9-10

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”

This verse is a command to us that we are to worship. But the Psalmist is specific as to where it should occur. It should occur among the nations (“heathen” in the KJV). 

This morning as we gather to worship we only do half this task. Yes we will stand before the Lord draped in the holiness of Christ. Wonderful songs will praise Him. But, no one else will hear. 

• As we worship the Lord during these unsettled times our message to the world should be that God is in charge. Nothing that is occurring is outside His control. 

• During these times of racial unrest our message to the world should be that God will judge with equity. 

Speak this message to your unsaved friends. Don’t have any?  Make some. 

This past week Robyn and I ate out and befriended a man who sat near us. His name is Dexter Ford, a former writer for the New York Times.  As the conversation turned toward Christ, he declared himself not religious and for a reason he directed me to the Book of Judges and to the story of Jephthah!  He could not understand why God would require Jephthah to sacrifice his own daughter. Not prepared to speak on Jephthah, I offered to look into it and get back to him.

He continued the conversation, by offering his book, “The Generosity of the Hangman”.  His optometrist was a survivor of the Holocaust and Dexter wrote down this first person account of the atrocities of Kristallnacht, the ghetto of Łódź,  Auschwitz, and Buchenwald. I am almost finished reading the book.

Dexter and I are now friends on Facebook. I have been able to explain that Jephthah made a completely unnecessary vow with God to ensure his own victory. It was a foolish mistake and unlike a victor’s history, which erases mistakes, the Bible includes them and as such it is to be believed. 

God is in charge and will judge with equity.

The Right Tool

In preparation for worship, this week we are asked to meditate on:

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The writer of Hebrews is describing a tool.  It is a very sharp tool that is capable of dividing things that normally cannot be separated.  

• Our soul and our spirit

They are so tied together that we stumble to describe them separately.   The soul (psychē) is our essence separate and distinct from the body.  Our spirit (pneuma) is what brings life to that body.  It is the source.

• Our joint and our marrow 

They are part of the same bone.  Notice please that the writer did not say that it was able to do the simple thing of separating bone from bone at the joint.  This sword is able to separate the life giving marrow that is inside the bone from what is on the surface.

• Our thoughts and our intentions

Our thoughts are the results of our intentions.  Like the other two pairs, intentions (ennoia) is the source.

Ok, so we have a sharp tool.  What do we do with it?  Let's go back a few verses to understand its purpose.

Hebrews 4:1

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

Hebrews 4:6

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 

Hebrews 4:11 

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

What is this disobedience (apeitheia)?  It is deep.  It is obstinate opposition to God's will. It is the root of sin.  

Fortunately for us, we have the right tool.

United heart

This week we are asked to meditate on:

Psalm 86:11–12

Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.

Often we are told to strengthen or purify our heart.  But here, and only here, we are told to unite it and that doing so we might fear God.  But we not asked to unite it with something, we are asked to bring it together as one (yachad).

My office is a matrixed world.  I have people working for me from 5 different managers, and they from multiple organizations.  There would be chaos of cross purposes if there was not an agreed upon goal.  This week I will be producing reports of individual velocity of the work these individuals have accomplished that are part of that goal.  Those reports will be used by their managers in their mid-year review.  We are united.

Is your heart united?  In this harried world, is your heart united?  How is this done?  The Psalmist cries out "Teach me your way, O Lord".  He longs to walk in God's truth.

Notice please that the walk is not a destination, but a path.  He does not cry out to locate an elusive and hidden secret truth.  He asks to be taught how to walk in the path of truth ('emeth).  The word describes it as "peace and stability".

Notice also that it is not "isolation and tranquility".  It is "peace and stability".  We do not walk alone.  As socially distant we are currently to be, we are called to bring peace and stability to every conversation -- every time.  But how?  It is so easy to get off the path.

Witness this week.  I got a call from one my folks at work.  He asked the dreaded question "Why?".  Out of dozens of people I had excluded one person, a teammate of his, from a required assignment.  It was simply not fair.  This innate need for justice makes the following verse of the clearest maps of this path:

Micah 6:8 

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?