The Space in Between

Have you ever been in the middle of a fight?  Not that you were fighting, but two people that you knew were fighting about something are you were caught in the middle trying to make peace.  That is a difficult place to be, isn’t it?  How do you help without taking sides?  What if no one is “wrong” or “right”, how do you help?  What do you do if you know one person is completely in the right and the other is in the wrong?  We are enemies with God.  We are in the wrong.  He is in the right.  Who can come between us both and solve this problem?  In the Old Testament book of Job that same question is asked, let’s look at that passage together.  Here are parts of chapter 9 from the book of Job.

¹Then Job answered and said:

²"Truly I know that it is so:
But how can a man be in the right before God?
³If one wished to contend with him,
one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
⁴He is wise in heart and mighty in strength
—who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—

¹³"God will not turn back his anger;
beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.
¹⁴ How then can I answer him,
choosing my words with him?
¹⁵ Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
¹⁶If I summoned him and he answered me,
I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
¹⁷For he crushes me with a tempest
and multiplies my wounds without cause;
¹⁸he will not let me get my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
¹⁹If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
²⁰Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;

²⁹I shall be condemned;
why then do I labor in vain?
³⁰If I wash myself with snow
and cleanse my hands with lye,
³¹yet you will plunge me into a pit,
and my own clothes will abhor me.
³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
that we should come to trial together.
³³ There is no arbiter between us,
who might lay his hand on us both.
³⁴ Let him take his rod away from me,
and let not dread of him terrify me.
³⁵Then I would speak without fear of him,
for I am not so in myself.

Things to think about:
o     Remember that Job is in a rough place right now in life.  He has lost everything and his family and friends are blaming him for it!  They are saying, “it is because of your sin that God is judging you…”  Job does not believe that he has done anything wrong that would deserve all of this.  So when it says he is blameless, don’t think he is claiming to be perfect, but rather that he is claiming to be a good person and the amount of suffering he is going through is unjust.
o     Job recognized the power of God and the wisdom of God and at least gave God the respect that He was due.  In our times of trial do we do the same?
o     Job was looking for someone to be an arbiter?  What is an arbiter?  If I used the word arbitration, does that help? 
o     I love the picture of someone laying a hand on God and laying a hand on me and bringing us together, once enemies and now made whole.  Job looked for that person and could not find Him.  I look for that person and find Jesus Christ! 
o     Jesus stands between me and my sins and God and His justified wrath and bring peace.  How?  Through the cross.  Thank you Jesus for being the arbiter that we have all been looking for.

The Justice of God and the Repentance of Man

            God is just.  We can say that and many of us believe it, until we see the wicked prosper and the good person get cancer.  We look to heaven and say, “unfair.”  This is not right, this is not good.  In the Bible there are a number of occasions when people cry out to God with similar feelings of injustice and doubt.  I would say rightly so, because many times on the surface things seem like God does it backwards, like He is a crazy person or has no idea what He wants.  But, the key is that is only on the surface and not the truth that lies beneath.  The truth is that God is always just, he is always right, and he is always good, whether we see it or not.  It is our eyes that need adjustment, not God’s ways.  The people of Israel had been destroyed and carried off as slaves by the Babylonians and the remaining survivors were crying out to God…”this is not fair.”  God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel and has a message for those that would claim moral superiority over God.

Ezekiel 33:10-20

¹⁰ “Son of man, say to the Israelites, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?”’ ¹¹ Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’

¹² “Therefore, son of man, say to your people, ‘If someone who is righteous disobeys, that person’s former righteousness will count for nothing. And if someone who is wicked repents, that person’s former wickedness will not bring condemnation. The righteous person who sins will not be allowed to live even though they were formerly righteous.’ ¹³ If I tell a righteous person that they will surely live, but then they trust in their righteousness and do evil, none of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered; they will die for the evil they have done. ¹⁴ And if I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but they then turn away from their sin and do what is just and right— ¹⁵ if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil—that person will surely live; they will not die. ¹⁶ None of the sins that person has committed will be remembered against them. They have done what is just and right; they will surely live.

¹⁷ “Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just. ¹⁸ If a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, they will die for it. ¹⁹ And if a wicked person turns away from their wickedness and does what is just and right, they will live by doing so. ²⁰ Yet you Israelites say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to your own ways.”

Things to think about:

·         I love verse eleven in this passage.  We can sometimes think that God enjoys punishing people or judging people for their sins.  This clearly shows that he doe not enjoy it, and would rather have them repent.  Now is your chance, repent so that God does not have to be grieved when he judges you.
·         Can you see the pattern of forgiveness that is even evident in the Old Testament?  God knows that we will make horrible mistakes and sin in our lives, but what he is longing for is our repentance and us asking for forgiveness.  He is willing to give it!
·         If the righteous person makes one mistake all of those good deeds are remembered no more?  Why?  What hope do any of us have?  Thank you Jesus that all my sins have been paid for and His righteousness is now credited to me!  There is no other way, no other hope!  Even for the people of Israel.

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

           Last night I watched part of a documentary about Siberian Tigers with my kids.  The biggest cat in the world, and one of the most endangered cats as well.  The Siberian Tiger is a fierce and powerful hunter.  Once it decides that you are good for food, there is not much you can do about it.  In the documentary it showed the tiger chasing down a bunny, just a snack.  The bunny had no chance.  The tiger pounced and that was it, goodbye Peter Cottontail.  The contrast in power between the tiger and the bunny made me think about a story from the Old Testament. 

The Israelites have been freed by God from Egypt and had traveled for 40 years learning to obey God’s directions.  Moses is dead now and Joshua is the leader of the people and the leader of the armies.  Joshua leads the people in a victory over Jericho where God breaks down the walls and delivers the people over to the Israelites.  Then Joshua fails to consult God on an important decision and the Israelites make a treaty with the Gibeonites.  We are going to look at the story of what happed when the now allies of Israel, the Gibeonites, are attacked. 

Joshua 10:1-15

¹As soon as Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to destruction, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, ² he feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were warriors. ³So Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, to Piram king of Jarmuth, to Japhia king of Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon, saying, ⁴"Come up to me and help me, and let us strike Gibeon. For it has made peace with Joshua and with the people of Israel." ⁵Then the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, gathered their forces and went up with all their armies and encamped against Gibeon and made war against it.

⁶And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, saying, "Do not relax your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country are gathered against us." ⁷So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. ⁸And the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you." ⁹So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. ¹⁰ And the LORD threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow at Gibeon and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. ¹¹And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the LORD threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

¹²At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,

 "Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon."
¹³And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. ¹⁴ There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel.

¹⁵So Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.

Things to think about:

       o     Notice that God fought in more than one way; he held the sun in the sky so they could have daylight to fight, and he threw giant stones from the sky.

o     Could you image what those armies must have been thinking?  Where are these rocks coming from?  Where can I hide?  What is with the sun?  What is going on here?  I want my mommy!

o     I have heard people that argue about how the sun could not have stood still and this must have been an eclipse or some other natural occurance, blah, blah, blah.  Hello!  Did God create the Universe with the words out of his mouth?  Does He have absolute power over all things?  Can He creates rocks out of nothing and throw them at people?  Can he keep all the laws of physics working while at the same time hold the sun in place for a full day?  The answer is yes, because He is God!  He can do that kind of stuff…

o     It almost feels like the tiger and the bunny in this story doesn’t it?  Except the enemies of God have even less of a chance to get away.  There truly is no place to run, and no place to hide when God is after you.

o     What do we do?  We make sure we are not enemies of God!  Jesus Christ has made a way through His death and resurrection for you to receive forgiveness and to be changed forever from an enemy of God into a child of God.  Talk about a miracle, that is cooler than the sun staying in the sky for a year!  What a gift!  What a transformation!  What a God!

Liar, Liar, Your on Fire

            I had an interesting discussion last night about the topic of lying and lies that we believe.  What lies do you currently believe as true?  If you knew the answer to that question you would know they were lies and you wouldn’t believe them, so obviously you don’t think you believe any lies…but, you must think there are some things you believe that are not true, right?  How important is it to know the truth about God? 

            Here is my big question for the day, “Would you rather believe a lie about God that made you feel comfortable, or the truth about God that made you feel uncomfortable?”  Think about that question as you read our passage for today.

 
Ephesians 4:17-25

¹⁷Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. ¹⁹They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. ²⁰But that is not the way you learned Christ!— ²¹assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²²to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

²⁵Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Things to think about:

o     Notice the relationship between right thinking and right living…how does what you believe about God, the Bible, life, effect the way you live?
o     According to verse 18 what in us causes ignorance?  Do you find this to be true in your life?  Have you ever been presented with the truth, but stubbornly refused to believe it?
o     The truth about Jesus will set us free from our old selves and from sin…so the question is – How desperately do you pursue the truth of Jesus? 
o     Read verse 25 again…when you discover the truth about Jesus what are you supposed to do with that truth?  Why?  If you believed a lie, wouldn’t you want your friend to tell you the truth?  Shouldn’t we be so kind to our friends?