It's God's Story

1 Kings 20:28 The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because the Arameans think the LORD is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the LORD.’”

It appears that sometimes God does things because He wants to correct what people think of Him (show who He really is)... not necessarily who the key players are or what they have done... He gives Ahab the victory, not because of who Ahab is (he is married to Jezebel who had set up worship of other gods in Israel and had "all" the prophets of God slaughtered... except for the two 50s hidden in caves and Elijah hiding in the ravine and with that widow....) but because of who God is... and what people believed about Him.

God is telling His story and He moves accordingly... it isn't about us... it's far greater than us and our understanding.

Earlier in 1 Kings 16:15 it says "In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned in Tirzah seven days." Why so short a reign?

If you read the surrounding story... God had decided to carry out judgement on the house of Baasha. He apparently chose Zimri to enact that... Here is some of the backstory: "12 So Zimri destroyed the whole family of Baasha, in accordance with the word of the LORD spoken against Baasha through the prophet Jehu—." He appeared to be doing what God wanted... but he ended up setting fire to the palace with himself still in it.

So he died and the passage tells us it is because of the sins that he had committed... God is using sinful people to do what He needs for the story to move forward.

I have trouble getting my simple mind around the complexity of these stories... I've lived with far simpler thinking "do what's right and God blesses" but these stories challenge my limited perspective... there is a greater backstory... I wonder how often the "key players" are unaware... like Job when Satan approaches God... the whole conversation that affects his life is "offstage" and the key player isn't in on it... At least I think of Job as the key player... and perhaps it's my limited understanding that is the problem... how often does God move to tell His story and I get in the way? How often do I hinder the story by not submitting to what I perceive as "unjust" treatment... I deserve better or "they are in the wrong"... instead of listening for the Spirit and remaining vulnerable.

How do I love in the midst of the story when it isn't about me or what I want?

The Nature of Evil

On Sunday we were discussing a quote from Jon Piper about the nature of evil. Here is an excerpt:

God did not just overcome evil at the cross. He made evil serve the overcoming of evil. He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil. Evil is anything and everything opposed to the fullest display of the glory of Christ. That's the meaning of evil.

I am to always reveal the glory of Christ... in its fullness... anything that I do that promotes myself interferes with His glory... anything and everything....

Just what does that mean?

How am I to live with an awareness of His Spirit of Love flowing through me... or might I be unaware at times, but still fighting the good fight of faith?

What does it mean to "fight the good fight of the faith" for me today?

The Gentle Whisper of Invisible Truth

Today I reread the story of Elijah running from Jezebel. I noticed that God showed up and fed him in order to strengthen him on his way... but when he gets to that place (40 miles away) God asks him "What are you doing here?" I find it interesting that Elijah begins to whine about his situation and God reveals something to him about Who He really is... despite the fact that he has run away in fear and is pretty self-absorbed... He shows him wind and earthquakes and fire... but He is in the gentle whisper.

God helps him by feeding him and then revealing Himself to Elijah... and what was it that God wanted him to know about Him?

He was in the gentle whisper.... He asks again "What are you doing here Elijah?" Elijah says his whiny thing again and God just tells him to go back to work... and also tells him that there are more people than he knows about who are for the Lord... seven thousand in fact.

I wonder in my fear, where it is that I run to? How my perspective (I am the ONLY one I whine) affects what I perceive as true and therefore my actions... I wonder what it means for me today to live by faith in that invisible Truth... that Gentle Whisper?

Of Miracles in Hearts and Gentle Whispers

Today I was reading the story of the flash and fire that Elijah called down from heaven in his dual against the prophets of Baal. One little line in that passage that I hadn't noticed before caught my attention today.

Elijah is ready to call down the fire from heaven to consume his thrice drenched offering and he says in his prayer: Answer me, LORD, answer me, so that these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.

Which is the miracle here? It seems to me a far greater thing that God intervenes to change hearts than that there is a fancy display of power... it is amazing that He decides to act and illustrate His story this way... in the next chapter He reveals Himself to Elijah... not in the wind or earthquake or fire, but in the gentle whisper....

Help me, O Lord, to attend to that gentle whisper today.... Continue to turn my heart to the pathways that lead to Your Kingdom here on earth.

The Trust of a Starving Widow

I've been reading in 1 Kings 17 about the time when there was famine in the land and God was directing Elijah to go stay with a widow... what interests me in this story right now was... who was this widow that God would select her? What kind of person was she that He took notice of her to provide for her during this terrible time of suffering?

The passage says, "I have directed a widow to supply you with food." How did He do that? Was it something direct and audible or was it an inclination in her heart (a lifelong practice) to take care of others before herself? Did God know He could trust her to "do the right thing"?

The first thing she says to Elijah is that she has no bread only a little flour and oil that she is gathering sticks to make her last meal. I wonder what her attitude was? She didn't seem bitter... she actually follows Elijah's instructions and provides something for him to eat... how did she still have hope/faith that his words would come true? Did she really believe that she would be able to have endless flour and oil... did she think "Well, I have nothing to lose" or was there another thought... something else, something more grounded in trust?

Did she believe in her spirit, in her very being... that it was what she needed to do... to feed this weary traveler from the little she had... barely enough for a last meal for she and her son before they would die? Did this come from a lifetime of practicing to sacrifice for the sake of others? Did she trust in his promises? Believe that his words were from God for her? Did she hope this was His hand providing for her?

Was this the attitude of her heart that God entrusted her with the care of Elijah? Did He even need to speak to her directly or did He simply know that He could count on her to live vulnerably and pour out for others?

What kind of woman was this? Is it possible for me to live in such a way that God could entrust His plans and His people to me as well?

Friends and Enemies, Enemies and Friends

I was reading this morning in 2 Samuel a story about a woman whose grief was so great for her sons and nephews that she stayed beside their dead bodies day and night for months in order to chase the birds and wild animals away from them....

The back story is in 2 Sam. 21. There is a famine in the land for 3 years, David asks God what to do about it and He tells them it is "on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death." David then asks the Gibeonites what he would have them to do for them and they ask for 7 of Saul's descendants to be put to death and exposed on a hill. Rizpah is the mother of two of them. She spreads sackcloth on a rock "from the beginning of harvest until the rain poured down from heaven on the bodies, she did not let the birds touch them by day or the wild animals by night." When David hears about it, he gets the bones of Saul (the father of her children) and Jonathan as well as gathering up the bones of these 7 men and buries them for her.

The interplay of justice and mercy in this story is incredible. The extent of discomfort to which this woman would place herself for those she loved (and they were dead) is impressive. Sackcloth is pretty rough... I like my cotton sheets... on a rock... I like my soft bed... day and night... I like my sleep....

I also find David's compassion here very beautiful. He is the one who has ordered this be done, but he also is moved by her grief and responds by not only burying those she is tending, but going to recover the bones of her family so that they can all be "laid to rest."

All of this for Saul's family after David had suffered so much at the hand of Saul.

These extremes make an impression for me... I so rarely allow myself to feel discomfort for those who are living with me in the present moment....

I wonder at what I am being called to embrace here?

Accepting Curses from Others as from God

Today I was reading that David fled when Absalom took power and on his way out of town, Shimei curses him while throwing stones and dirt... David's men want to go after him and David stops them. He says: "If he is cursing because the LORD said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who can ask, ‘Why do you do this?’... Leave him alone; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to. ¹² It may be that the LORD will look upon my misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of his curse today.” (Emphasis mine)

Wow... how often do I look at those who are giving me a hard time and say... this might be from the Lord? What kind of perspective does one have of God that allows him or her to walk through life embracing whatever comes along... that allows a person to live at peace in the world?

I long to know more of Him, that I might embrace Him and His ordering of my life.