Singing in the Dark

One thing I appreciate about the scriptures is how they are true to real life.  There are intense victories won in battle, the unspeakable pain of losing loved ones, frustration over being slandered, and awe over the beauty of nature.  The breadth and depth of the human experience is expressed with insight and understanding of what matters to us.  Because of this agreement with our souls the people of scripture resonate with those who seek after God to this day.

A glorious revelation in the Bible about the nature of God is it is always time to seek Him.  Whether we win or lose, if we are healthy or feel sick, when we are filled with joy or deep depression, God is glorious and praiseworthy.  The book of Psalms is filled with people who knew and trusted God who found themselves in impossible situations.  Desperate times were often the background of David's songwriting.  It seems when he was in great danger the sweet psalmist of Israel was at his most melodious, writing prayerful lyrics to God.  Songbirds can be quiet at night, but it was in the dark times David's songs swelled to heaven.

How about you?  Do you sing to God in the dark times, bringing your petitions and adoration to a God who is the lifter of your head?  What great hope and comfort we find in Him, for when we pour out our souls to Him we are heard.  Psalm 61:1-4 provides an example:  "Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. ² From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. ³ For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. ⁴ I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah"  David trusted in God, and at times he was overwhelmed.  There is great comfort here for those who trust in God who are overwhelmed today, for as God helped David He is faithful to help us.

May the LORD put a new song in our hearts to proclaim His praises, for He is good and His mercy endures forever.  You may not think much of your singing voice, but the LORD delights to hear it because He cares for us.  Whether we find ourselves in a cave, a dungeon at midnight, or feel like we are drowning, God will hear and attend to our prayer.  Praise Him forever! 

Our Choices Affect Others

Driving down Windsor Road yesterday I saw an illuminated sign which read, "Your driving affects others."  That's not something which often preoccupies my mind, but it is true.  Dangerous driving on my part bring increased risk to me, my passengers, pedestrians, other drivers, and property.  Lives have been lost and permanently affected by poor decisions made by others on the road.

Our driving affects others, and the way we live our lives affects others too.  Our everyday choices may not result in accidents which in seconds destroy life and property, but the results can be broader and further reaching.  Should we embrace sin, it will have a catastrophic and destructive impact on our lives and others.  Sin brings destruction not only on lives but upon eternal souls.  Adam is a fitting example, but perhaps that of Micah is more compelling because it occurred after man's initial fall.

Micah lived in a time in Israel when there was no king and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.  Micah had stolen 1,100 shekels of silver from his mother, but after she cursed the thief he admitted stealing the silver.  His mother blessed him for his "honesty."  She claimed she had dedicated the silver unto the LORD, and after he returned it she gave 200 shekels to the silver to make an image for his collection.  Micah had a collection of gods with an ephod, and he consecrated his son to be a priest.  A wandering Levite was later consecrated to take on the role of priest to the family, and Micah believed the LORD would do him good because he had a "proper" priest.  Of course all Micah had done was improper, illegal according to the Law of Moses, and abominable before God but he (like everyone else at the time) did what was right in his own eyes.

Over the course of time men from the tribe of Dan went through the land.  They were looking for good land with people isolated from any help or protection who would be easy prey.  After they found such a place, they took 600 armed men to take the land by force.  On the way they dropped by Micah's house, took his idols and his Levite "priest," and went on their way despite Micah's protests.  They warned him his life and those of his house would be forfeit if he interfered with them, so Micah returned home.  When the men of Dan arrived in Laish, they smote the city and burned it with fire.  They rebuilt the city and called it Dan, after their father.  Judges 18:30-31 explains the shocking consequences of the idolatry of Micah and his mother:  "Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image; and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. ³¹ So they set up for themselves Micah's carved image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh."

Micah's mother made an image of silver, and Micah placed it in a shrine in his house.  The tribe of Dan stole it, Jonathan and his sons become priests who used it in worship, and idolatry was entrenched in Israel for hundreds of years.  How many people and families were ensnared by the worship of Micah's idol whilst the Tabernacle of God stood in Shiloh!  Now I cannot say what your sin might be or what could be the ultimate impact of it, but even if one souls is ensnared and turned aside from the living God it would be too much.  It is a tragedy when one life is unnecessarily lost because of poor driving, and it is horrendous for a soul to go to hell for eternity because of sin.  Jesus came to this earth to seek and save sinners, to destroy the works of the devil, and provide eternal life.  The situation with Micah shows the sin of one person has the capacity to affect an entire nation for evil.

The way we live affects others - for good or for evil - more than you know.  It may not be something you often think about, but it is true.

Temptation's Subtlety

Today I read the passage in Judges 16 when Samson divulged to Delilah the secret of his great strength.  I was struck with how a man of great physical strength who could carry off city gates was eventually pushed over with pestering words spoken by a woman he loved.  Samson had bitter and bloody feud with the Philistines, yet he loved a woman named Delilah who lived in the valley of Sorek.  The Philistine lords for a long time had sought to capture Samson, and they bribed Samson's lover to discover the secret of his strength so they might neutralise it.

An interesting observation is as Delilah ramped up the pressure to share the secret of his strength, there was a softening of her request.  Consider the first time she brought up the subject in Judges 16:6:  "So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you."   This is a straightforward question with intent.  If I was Samson, I would seriously wonder why she would ask such a question!  Did she ask because she wanted to bind and afflict me?  Samson shrugged it off with a lie.  The next time Delilah made her request it was slightly different in Judges 16:10:  "Then Delilah said to Samson, "Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me what you may be bound with."  There was no mentioning of the source of his strength, nor any reference to affliction.  Again, Samson deliberately misled her.  Delilah's third request was very similar to the second time with the same results.

Finally Delilah said in Judges 16:15, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies."  Delilah made no mention of binding or affliction.  Her statement is insightful, for she connected the affections of Samson's heart with responding to her request.  She wanted to know where his great strength lie - conveniently not mentioning her intent to bind and afflict him.  Judges 16:16-17a says, "And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death, ¹⁷ that he told her all his heart..."  Day after day she pressed him, and the resolve of the mighty judge of Israel crumbled.  It was not long before he was indeed bound, afflicted, blinded, imprisoned, and made the object of ridicule.

It occurred to me the progression employed by Delilah mirrors the tactics of sinful temptation.  At first we are repulsed by the thing, realising the grave consequences of giving into sin.  Day after day of our soul being pressed leads to us wondering what all the fuss is about.  What is the big deal anyway?  Curiosity chews into our resolve and we find our affections shifting from allegiance to God and drifting towards the satisfaction of our flesh.  The scripture does not say, but I wonder if after Samson was bound and his eyes gouged out he regretted loving Delilah in the first place?  Blind in the darkness of a Philistine prison, I imagine Samson started seeing clearly mistakes he made when he could fend off his enemies easily.  It is good for us to realise the enemy of our souls is always looking to afflict and blind us, but as children of God he cannot do so without our permission.  The "secret" of our strength found through trust and obedience to Jesus Christ is no secret, but we can forget to guard our hearts from illicit affections and to keep our hands clean of sin.  When we give into sin's demands, we find ourselves weak as any other man.

Where Is The Compassion?

Paul asked a good question in Romans 9:20:  "O man, who are you to reply against God?"  Maybe there was a day when people realised the implications of arrogantly speaking against God and His wisdom, but it is not today.  I shudder when I hear the swelling words and vain philosophies of people who vaunt themselves over the Almighty LORD of hosts, the Creator and Judge of all the earth.  Woe to those who say they know better than God!  Professing to be wise, such expose their own folly.  These voices who oppose God have the same demonic tenor of those who shouted before Pilate concerning Jesus Christ, "Away with Him!  Crucify Him!"

It is a simple thing to point fingers at the faults of others, but followers of Jesus Christ ought to live as He did in a secular culture and faithfully examine our own hearts.  We cannot stoop to the level of such who speak proudly in arrogance, hating any who oppose them.  If we do not have compassion on those who are deceived and deliberately adding to their guilt before a holy God by rebellion and pride, we sin by refusing to love others as God does.  Passion without love and compassion is sin.  We must stand fast on the Word of God, for only then do we find an unshakeable foundation under our feet.  It is good to uphold righteousness, especially in a sinful world.  Love does not oppose righteousness but completes it.  We will surely suffer for such a clear stand, but praise God for His abundant consolation.

Consider what is written in 1 Peter 2:20-23:  "For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. ²¹ For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ²² "Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth"; ²³  who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously..."  Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem, filled with people scattered as sheep without a shepherd.  They refused to believe Jesus was the Son of God, rejected His sound teaching, and scorned His outstretched arms of love.  Those few faithful followers of Jesus today are to follow His example of compassion, mercy and grace when we are maligned, belittled, and slandered falsely.

Brothers and sisters, let us not shy away from using the truth of scripture to combat the satanic deceptions at work in the minds and hearts of people today.  Why use secondary sources or statistics when we can speak forth the powerful words of God?  When Peter spoke to the unbelieving Sanhedrin, he quoted the scriptures.  After Philip ran to the Ethiopian eunuch, he preached Christ from the Word of God.  Whether Paul spoke to unbelieving Jews, Roman rulers, or the philosophers in Athens, he preached from the Bible.  Preaching the Word of God is a single thread connecting all their discourses to believers as well as unbelievers.  Some were enraged, others laughed and mocked, but there were some who believed and were saved.  LORD, forgive me when I have substituted the logic of men for the Word of God!

Will you be so bold to seek opportunities to share the truth of God's Word with others to show why you believe what you believe with meekness and fear?  1 Peter 3:8-12 exhorts us all, "Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; ⁹  not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. ¹⁰ For "He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. ¹¹ Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. ¹² For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil."