The Warning of Laish

An odd thing happened to me this morning.  After waking up I recalled to mind an incident which took place a long time ago at work.  I was a foreman in the dockyards and was doing my rounds toward the end of the day to check on the progress of the crew on board.  One of the spaces where work was supposed to be happening was dark, so I investigated further.  I caught my crew doing one of the cardinal sins of workers:  lying down for a nap on the job.  The one in charge was a bit sheepish and laughed it off when I confronted them.  The next day when my fellow foreman and I wrote them up with a formal warning, it was a different story.  The subordinate worker signed the form without hesitation, but the lead man would not:  he attempted to deflect, blame, made excuses and eventually broke down in tears.  It was a stunning scene of someone being called to account for bad behaviour, and he refused to accept it.

While memories of this scene swirled in my head, I sat down to read through Judges 18.  In the passage, five men from Dan traveled around the country looking for a place to settle down.  Having received the blessing of God from their Levite friend, Judges 18:7 says, "So the five men departed and went to Laish. They saw the people who were there, how they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the Sidonians, and they had no ties with anyone."  Laish was just the soft target the spies from Dan were looking for.  They observed the people of Laish dwelt safely because of their isolation from others.  The men of Dan noticed there was no ruler or magistrate in the land "who might put them to shame for anything."  The people were careless, self-absorbed and clueless about the real danger they faced.  The consequences of isolation from leadership in Laish remind me of David's negligence to challenge his son Adonijah for folly in his youth in the first bit of 1 Kings 1:6:  "And his father had not rebuked him at any time by saying, "Why have you done so?"  A loving rebuke and searching question while he was young might have saved him from trouble when he was grown.

The tragic overthrow of the people of Laish and the folly of Adonijah are examples why godly leadership is important.  A good leader must at times say hard things people will not appreciate or agree with and take actions to arrest the attention of others for constructive purposes and necessary reformation.  One good ruler in Laish might have put off the spies from Dan from their plans to attack and take the city, even as a shepherd or sheepdog deters a pack of hungry wolves.  It is important to point out that a magistrate (from the KJV) was not a king but answered to a governor or king and served as rule on behalf of their sovereign.  The magistrate did not exist to be served any more than the sheepdog is served by the sheep.  The sheepdog serves the shepherd and at times makes the sheep uncomfortable by darting around, stimulating the prey instinct to flee when the dominant sheep would rather settle down to graze.  People can live in their own little world (magistrates, shepherds and dogs included!) and begin to live carelessly:  sleeping more, working less, drinking more, caring about God or others less, forgetting we serve a God who called and ordained us to do good.  Because He loves us He corrects us, we ought to take His correction to heart.  To drift to a place we cannot hear the voice of our Good Shepherd ultimately results in the demise of our fruitfulness and lives.

A church, a family and a person can become a Laish:  isolated, secure and careless, a place where uncomfortable truths are avoided, where recognised God-fearing leadership is scarce, where no one is willing to do anything that could potentially provoke a sense of shame--even when it is the loving thing to do.  This hits me in so many areas of my life as a child of God, dad, church leader and friend.  It speaks to my duty to be led by the Holy Spirit in taking the lead in love and gladly receiving rebuke and correction from others whether I think I need it or not.  It is a warning against me becoming a Laish in any area of my life, for the destruction of the city is a stark example of what awaits those who answer to no one.  We in the Body of Christ the church all must answer to Jesus and give account of our stewardship, and how good it is to respond in obedience to His guidance rather than being secure in complacency without help.

God is Good!

"So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah. ¹³ Then Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!"

Judges 17:12-13

The season of the judges in Israel is well-described as a time when everyone did what was right in their own eyes.  Without a godly king to govern people in the ways of God, the children of Israel plunged into idolatry.  Micah was a Hebrew whose house was full of idols, and at one stage even consecrated one of his own sons to be his priest.  When a wandering Levite came looking for a place, Micah was pleased to offer him the position in his home.  He was convinced God would certainly be good to him since he installed a "real" Levite as priest.  Micah hoped to score points with God when his shrines and idolatrous devotion were completely abominable according to God's word.

The mentality of Micah is a surprisingly common perspective today.  People work to please God motivated by the hope of receiving blessing for themselves or to avoid divine retribution.  Years ago I found a man in front of my house picking through flowers to find three specimens of the preferred shape and colour to offer to his deity, Brahma.  Why?  So Brahma would do him good.  I recall the moment well when a person selling their house buried a statue of St. Joseph in the yard, believing it would help the sale be profitable and smooth.  Like Micah's idols which were blind, deaf, dumb and lifeless, that statue would have been better suited as a paperweight, doorstop or a decoration than to place any hope of blessing from it.

There are people who do not believe in God who are willing to receive good from Him should He exist, yet the disciple of Jesus has a different view of God from Micah altogether.  We do not try to please God so He will be good to us, but seek to please Him because He is good.  The motive to obey God of those born again by faith in Jesus Christ begins with who God is and our relationship to Him as His beloved children.  Our actions to do good are in light of and in response to what God has already done in demonstrating His love for us.  It is the love of Christ that compels us to reciprocate with thanksgiving and gratitude for choosing us, suffering for us and adopting us as His own.  It is never in doubt God will do us good because He is good.

The relationship of a child of God to our Father in heaven is far greater than seeking good from Him but viewing Him as the greatest good who was, is and will ever be.  John 1:16 says of Jesus, "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace."  God graciously created us and gave us life, and through Jesus Christ we have been born again by faith and received eternal life.  God's love for us is not based upon our good performance:  it springs from His goodness and grace.  Those who do things in the hope God will do them good do not understand who God is as revealed in His word.  God is good and of His fullness we have received, and grace for grace.

The Skill of Rumination

As I grow older it is strange to think how much technology has changed the way people live in the western world.  For all of our advancements in science, medicine and education, however, there is one thing that has remained the same:  people.  The Bible is so relatable because it nails the essence of the human heart perfectly and resonates with our conscience.  It is ironic the many digital devices which allow us to work from home and technology which enable us to do more at once seem to drain our time and can make life more difficult and complex.  I am not interested in throwing away modern technological conveniences which are not sinful in themselves because they are not the problem.  We are the sinners.

Though the word of God remains the same, advances in technology and transportation have drastically changed the way Christian and church ministry is done.  We have gone from having one church in a large parish with one preacher to a global deluge of sermons and services we can tap into without leaving our bedroom.  When I was a kid at our church we had a "tape lending library" where the Sunday sermon was quickly recorded on cassette tapes to buy, borrow or share with others.  Because Christian radio programming was rare in our area, people would listen to the same cassette throughout the week and bring it back to church on Sunday where it was erased and updated with the most recent offering.

It used to be a family would have to go to a church building to hear a sermon, and during the week as they farmed or conducted business their minds would think back upon what they had heard.  I believe we are in an age when we must again refine the simple art of rumination.  Think of a cow in a paddock, chewing the cud with contentment.  Over and over the ox munches the same bite of grass, regurgitating and chewing again and again until most of the nutrients are absorbed.  We live in a day of binge-watching a whole season of shows over a weekend and look forward impatiently until the next installment.  For many, gone are the days of listening to the same sermon over and over, reading the same chapter or verse of the Bible again and again.  And some Christians have never known a day other than ours, a day of click-bait titles and an insatiable thirst to hear something new.  Some have never read through the entire Bible while others speed through several times a year.

So we move on from a sermon and on from a passage of scripture, seeking a new revelation from God when there is priceless wisdom from God we have glossed over in our haste.  Like a person orders from a menu at a restaurant, we can scroll through messages to a popular sermon by title.  Within minutes we can choose to close the message and look for something of interest.  For all our hearing there can be little growing, and our stunted growth causes us to doubt the usefulness and practicality of--imagine it--even a message from God because of the messenger or style of delivery.  Familiarity with a passage dupes us into thinking we know it already when the reality is a foreign concept to our lives.  Knowing and doing are two different things as the story of the wise and foolish builders Jesus told reveals.

David wrote of the blessed benefits of careful and patient consideration of God's law in Psalm 1:1-3:  "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; ² but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. ³ He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper."  See the blessing of meditation on God's word?  God told Joshua in Joshua 1:8, "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."  God commanded Joshua to speak God's word, meditate on it day and night, and do what it said.  If Joshua met God's conditions, his way would be prosperous and could be successful in all endeavors God called him to do.

Let us develop our skill of ruminating on a passage of God's word so our understanding and lives will be fruitful.  Read the scriptures again and again:  observing what the text says, interpreting scripture with scripture and putting God's divine wisdom into practice personally.  And it must be personal; it will require patience and perseverance, but no one can argue with the results because what God promised He will perform.  A cow ruminates because God created it to do so, and we have a choice what we will ruminate or meditate upon.  Humans have always had a terrible propensity to ruminate on what worries and troubles us rather than on God and the good word spoken to us.  As a farmer cleans the rust from the blades of the plough by directing it through hard earth, let us develop our skill of rumination by putting it into practice in heeding God's word as we break up the fallow ground of our hearts.

The Unclaimed Blessing

Christians desire blessing from God like people go crazy over free stuff.  Drawings and giveaways keep our attention at the possibility of winning a valuable prize.  I wonder if believers can be like people who hang around an event for the chance of receiving something good from God when He has already blessed us with His presence, grace and love.  The reality is we are more blessed than we realise and comprehend.

What does God's "blessing" or "blessings" we ask for look like?  A lot of times our translation can be a bit selfish:  make life easy, remove difficulties, help me or give me what I want.  Last night I read about a blessing God has provided for us we do not always appreciate.  In sharing the Gospel with curious Jews who gathered in Jerusalem, Peter said in Acts 3:25-26:  "You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' ²⁶ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities."  God coming to earth is a great blessing, and He was sent to bless people in turning everyone from their sins.

We love to have options and alternatives.  Mankind was under bondage to sin, death and fear, and Jesus came to turn us from sin.  He is infinitely more than a different option like a switch to another channel on television:  it is now like we can turn off the religious television programming altogether and have a personal relationship with God through faith.  Jesus came to save us from our sin, to turn us from wickedness and to Him.  The Law could only condemn sinners and Jesus bore the sins of the world on Calvary out of love for us in obedience to the Father.  Christians often rejoice to be free of the penalty of sin (which is death) and even the power of sin:  God has blessed us to turn us away from sin so we can look to Him in faith.  Sometimes our past iniquity and present temptation to sin has more of our attention than Christ who has turned us from it.

Though Jesus has blessed us by turning from sin, the reality is we can turn back to it.  Because sinful desire forms within us, it can seem no matter where we turn we cannot escape from the whispers to indulge in what allures our flesh.  We do well to remember this reason Jesus came to earth at all:  to turn us away from our iniquities, to deliver us from the power of the devil and sin.  The shame and guilt associated with sin has been washed away by the blood of Jesus, and this is a blessing we must receive by faith in Him.  To a believer sin God has turned us from ought to be seen as most sinful, not a "bad habit" or "moment of weakness" we can justify.  In all our temptation God makes with them the way of escape who is Christ, and He enables us to steadfastly endure and do righteously.

It would be a great shame to have your name chosen for a free new car or house and you were unable to claim for yourself because you decided to leave 5 minutes before the drawing took place out of boredom.  How many believers pray for blessing who do not realise the blessing Jesus has already provided by His coming to earth to turn away every one of us from our iniquities!  The chains that bound us to what brings a curse, sorrow and death have been broken by Jesus Christ who came to set captives free.  Will we as believers lay those shackles of sin upon our hands and feet, lamenting our hopeless state in unbelief, while the lock is shattered to bits?  Because Jesus has come, paid the price from our sin and is risen, let us in faith rise with Him who has blessed us.  If we will not receive the blessing of turning away from our iniquities, why should we beg for another?

When the purposes for Jesus Christ's coming to us are fulfilled, we are empowered to live fulfilling lives.