Month: September 2020

Because we did not seek him…

On By rcannata7In God's Word, Walk of obedienceLeave a comment

Consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it. Because you did not carry it the first time, the Lord our God broke out against us, because we did not seek him according to the rule.” So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord.” (1 Chronicles 15:12–15, ESV)

Today I was doing my daily readings of scripture and came across this verse that caught my attention. But before we dig into it, we need to look at the background of this story.

In 1 Sam 4, the Philistines captured the Ark of God, but everywhere they took it disaster happened, for scripture tells us that the Lord was heavy against the cities where they took the Ark. The Philistines returned the Ark to Israel where it ends up at Beth-shemesh. Here it is ministered to by the Levites. Then the men of Kriiath-jearim came and took the ark to the house of Abinadab and consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the Lord where it stayed for over 20 years. In that period Saul rises to become King, followed by David.

In 2 Sam 5, David defeats the Philistines through inquiry of the Lord. But now he hastily decides to go and bring up the Ark of God from its current location to the city of David. So David gathers all the chosen men of Israel, builds a new cart, then places the ark on the cart which is driven by Aminadab’s sons Uzzah and Ahio.

Nowhere do we see David inquiring the Lord regarding the movement of the Ark, but he just decides to do this. There is no preparation mentioned to sanctify those who would minister to the ark, which is considered the place of God’s presence. A God who describes himself as a consuming fire. To enter God’s presence in the tabernacle required great preparation to ensure that the person entering in was sanctified less God’s holy presence consume them.

The result is that when the ox stumbles Uzzah reaches out and touches the ark and dies. Uzzah had not consecrated himself in preparation for the movement of the ark, and God’s holiness consumes Uzzah for he is most likely unclean in God’s presence.

So, the second time they decide to move the ark, David understands his failure and the people consecrate themselves for the movement of the ark according to the word of the Lord recorded by Moses. This time it is successfully brought to Jerusalem.

I pondered, what can we understand from this story? In Isaiah 55 it says:

““Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:6–9, ESV)

We do not know God’s thoughts; we certainly don’t know His ways, so how do we seek Him out so He can be found? Only through the study of God’s words, and prayer! The big problem, do we ever really slow down and seek the Lord in genuine deep prayer, or spend quality time reading and meditating on His words?

For the preacher or teacher of God’s word, do we really seek him out to know what he desires us to teach? One thing that I have noticed in the study of scripture is that God usually does not reveal details about His purposes very far in advance. So how are we to believe that he gives us details for a whole year when we are to seek Him daily? He may, but I would be wondering if this is the Spirit or my flesh?

How about in our personal lives? Do we start the day asking the Lord to guide us through the day and that His will be done? If we are Christ’s workmanship as described in Ephesians 2:10, how are we to walk in them if we don’t ask Him what we are to be doing? Seems to me when David did not inquire of the Lord disaster followed.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

 If Jesus, God in the flesh, spent every morning seeking the fathers will, how much more should we be seeking the Lord in prayer? Seriously reflecting on what Jesus taught to His disciples, passed down to us in the gospels:

““And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:7–10, ESV)

All of this, a complete upward focus on the father should be reflected on before we ever get to the second part of the prayer:

“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:11–13, ESV)

By the way, did you catch all the plural pronouns in this prayer? This is not about me, its about us as the body of Christ. It is God’s provision, God’s forgiveness, and God’s protection of the community that we are to seek.

The Father knows what you need before you even ask. So I believe an outward focus is what he truly desires. I feel that we spend to much time with a laundry list of requests (my desires) for God that we never really turn our gaze upward. Think about that the next time you pray – do you start with a quick hi to God then jump into your list, or do you bathe yourself in His presence and at the end place your requests (he already knows) at His feet.

I like the way Augustine put it in his exposition of the psalms:

“It is one thing to seek some favor from the Lord, quite another to seek the Lord himself.… Do not seek any extraneous thing from the Lord, but seek the Lord himself. He will hearken to you, and even while you are still speaking he will say, “Here I am.” Expositions of the Psalms 34.9.[1]

So, I leave you with this selection from psalm 105 to meditate on this day:

“Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered, O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones!” (Psalm 105:1–6, ESV)

[1] Blaising, C. A., & Hardin, C. S. (Eds.). (2008). Psalms 1–50 (p. 260). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Did God actually say…

On By rcannata7In Biblical Literacy, God's Word3 Comments

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”” (Genesis 3:1–3, ESV)

I did a search of churches in my area. There were not as many as I expected but still quite a few. A sadness overtook to me as I listened to the exerts of sermons from these churches and most of them did not start with God’s word. Many of them used a small verse as a point in their story just to tie it to God but then jumped into pithy stories, humor, dramatic statements, sociology, psychology, and motivational garble to tickle the ears of the audience.

Do not get me wrong, some of these are probably descent churches with pastors that really desire people to know God but are going down a path that is very dangerous.

John MacArthur, a person in our generation who has held up the word of God continually through his life made this comment in an interview:

“These people, like the liberals, deny the clear teaching of Scripture. And I’m convinced that the reason they deny it is not because it can’t be understood, not because it’s unclear, but because they don’t like what it clearly says. And that takes you back to John 3, “Men love darkness rather than light.” The light is there, they hate the light, they run from the light. The issue is not that Scripture is not clear, it is crystal clear.” (John MacArthur)

Many pastors today have succumbed to the lie, “did God actually say? Instead of listening and preaching the scriptures, we have replace the Bible with psychology and sociology and created the seeker friendly church where the message preached is designed to give people what they want to hear and hide the truth of God’s word behind smoke and mirrors.

But the whisper is not just happening in the pulpit, we cannot blame just our leaders for our biblical illiteracy, we also must take the blame. Yes, the serpent is still more crafty and uses many tools to distract us from the Lord and His word.

When the word of God is not our center, then what is the balance of our priorities in life? How much time do we spend watching television over reading and studying and memorizing God’s word? What about social networking (Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc.) does it take more time than we spend reading God’s word? The list can go on, but the point is this – do you really consider the Word of God and spending time with the one who holds eternity in His hands important, or does the idols of this world draw you away? Dr. Kenneth Berding from Biola University made this observation in an article he wrote back in 2014…

Every time I teach a class called Biblical Interpretation & Spiritual Formation, I ask my students why it is that so few people in this generation are really zealous about the things of God. I can’t remember a time when I’ve asked that question when someone hasn’t mentioned distractions. Social networking, texting, television, video games and places dedicated to amusement (“amusement” parks, for example) pull our attention away from God’s Word. These fun and interesting activities occupy time that we could spend reading, studying and memorizing the Bible and they distract our thoughts during time we could spend meditating on God’s Word throughout the day. When we walk from one meeting to another, are our thoughts naturally moving to Scripture and prayer? As we leave a college class session, are we thinking on the things of God that we have learned from the Bible? Or do we immediately check to see whether someone has messaged us? (Berding, 1914)

I ask this simple question about our gathering together, and our personal time…what is the center of our attention, God’s Word or the world. In an article by Alex Dodson of the Watchman radio hour he notes:

The proclamation of the Word of God has taken a back seat in many evangelical churches today. The great pulpits of the past no longer exist. Even the large pulpit bibles that used to be on every pulpit don’t have a place in modern evangelical church sanctuaries. The pulpit has been put aside to make room for the worship team. When the preacher comes to speak, he usually has a small lectern that is put there for him to lay his Bible or notes on and then removed quickly as soon as he is finished to make room for the worship leaders. The great preaching of the Word of previous generations is missing from most modern day evangelical churches. So, people who tremble at the Word of God are scarce today. (Dodson, n.d.)

Is history repeating, are we like the ancient Israelites who worshiped God with their lips but had hearts that were far away?

May we pay heed to what the prophet Isaiah wrote to that generation…

“Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:1–2, ESV)

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8, ESV)

I leave the reader with this excerpt from a sermon delivered  by CH Spurgeon on March 16th 1890 which are still relevant today:

The Psalmist, in this psalm (psalm 19), has compared the Word of God to the sun. The sun in the heavens is everything to the natural world; and the Word of God in the heart is everything in the spiritual world. The world would be dark, and dead, and fruitless, without the sun; and what would the mind of the Christian be without the illuminating influence of the Word of God? If thou despisest holy Scripture, thou art like to one that despises the sun. It would seem that thou art blind, and worse than blind; for even those without sight enjoy the warmth of the sun. How depraved art thou if thou canst perceive no heavenly lustre about the Book of God! The Word of the Lord makes our day, it makes our spring, it makes our summer, it prepares and ripens all our fruit. Without the Word of God we should be in the outer darkness of spiritual death. I have not time this morning to sum up the blessings which are showered upon us through the sun’s light, heat, and other influences. So is it with the perfect law of the Lord; when it comes in the power of the Spirit of God upon the soul, it brings unnumbered blessings: blessings more than we ourselves are able to discern.

References

Berding, D. K. (1914). The Crisis of Biblical Illiteracy. Retrieved from magazine.biola.edu: http://magazine.biola.edu/article/14-spring/the-crisis-of-biblical-illiteracy/

Dodson, A. (n.d.). A Missing Element in Modern Evangelical Worship: People Who Tremble at the Word of God. Retrieved from http://www.oneplace.com: https://www.oneplace.com/ministries/watchman-radio-hour/read/articles/a-missing-element-in-modern-evangelical-worship-people-who-tremble-at-the-word-of-god-12289.html

Spurgeon, C. H. (1890). The Warnings and the Rewards of the Word of God. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 36, p. 157). London: Passmore & Alabaster.