Christ The Blessed

In a conversation recently it was brought up how well-meaning people have the idea they must do something to earn God's favour.  At a fundamental level, mankind assumes it falls to us to save ourselves, and our actions carry the most weight of importance.  Because God has created us with the ability to do many things, we naturally rely on ourselves and our own understanding to solve problems and work out a solution.  We imagine we must start doing something, stop doing something or give something to be blessed by God.  We can be depressed by feelings when we fail, and we can be so impressed with our efforts we think God must feel proud of us too.

While there are legitimate, big problems in the world, one of the biggest foes a child of God will face in their Christian life is self.  The devil himself pales in comparison to the negative impact of our constantly present, naturally selfish, proud, worldly thinking, habit forming, and insatiable body of flesh we dwell in.  Without knowledge of God or belief His word is true, our thoughts are not at all like His.  Grace, mercy, love and compassion from a pure heart are foreign concepts.  Without faith in Christ, we are often driven by fear and beset with anxiety and persistent worry.  Even our best efforts and personal sacrifices to please God will expose our folly, as in the case of Micah in the book of Judges.

Micah was a man of Mount Ephraim, and the reader's introduction to him is his confession of stealing 1,100 shekels of silver from his mother.  It seems the reason why he confessed and returned the silver was because she had cursed it, and he did not want to be cursed.  His mother responded by blessing her son, and she told him she had dedicated the silver to the LORD to make a graven and moulded image for him.  The story becomes even more strange when we read Micah had a house of idols and made his son a priest.  One day a sojourning Levite passed by, and Micah offered him a room, food, clothing and 10 shekels a year to be his priest.  Judges 17:13 reads, "Then Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!"  If Micah knew the LORD at all according to His word, he would have realised his idolatrous shrine and priest were abominable sins in God's sight that brought a curse.  Yet Micah believed God would then be good to him because he had a legitimate priest--presiding over his illegitimate idolatrous menagerie.

Micah would not be blessed by God due to the silver being dedicated to God, his ornate shrine, an ephod or a priest:  God's blessing is upon those who love and fear Him, those who keep His covenant.  Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! ⁵ You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."  Jesus said His disciples demonstrated their love for Him by obeying Him.  God is blessed, and all who love God are blessed by Him:  He is a greater blessing than anything of this world.  There are some who feel they must do, feel or give something great before they will respond in simple obedience to God at His word.  People are quite taken with what they can offer or can do for God rather than receiving forgiveness and salvation from God who freely offered Himself.  God delights in the soul who surrenders to Him, who comes before Him empty and needy, one who is content to know and serve God for nothing, seeing self as unworthy of any blessing.  The one who trusts, believes and obeys Jesus Christ is blessed beyond this world--all by God's grace.