From Wretched to Glorious

"If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now--if I have found favor in Your sight--and do not let me see my wretchedness!"

Numbers 11:15

Based on the words of Moses, his wretchedness was a truly awful thing.  He begged for God to kill him rather than to be confronted with his own inadequacies, failures, folly--not to mention his own unbelief.  It does not appear Moses was at all inclined toward self-harm or truly desired death, but he was totally disgusted by his own wickedness and depravity.  This is why many respect Moses, for by faith in God he was a righteous man, a friend of God, meek and humble.  Statements like this make him relatable to those who also realise the ugliness of their own wretchedness, our eyes having been opened by God to see the sobering truth about our own sin.

Today as I drove on my way to do errands suddenly a series of bad experiences from my past flooded through my mind one after another.  One was a cringeworthy thing I said; another exposed sinful motives of my heart.  As I shook my head in disgust with myself, I was reminded of this statement from Moses.  I did not ask for the LORD to kill me here and now, but the displeasure of confronting my own wretchedness was acutely felt.  Moses desired to have favour in the sight of God, and it is truly God's grace that He opens our eyes to see our sinfulness, need for pardon and transformation.  As much as I would love to never remember those terrible experiences with my wretchedness on display, I can see value in God using them to remind me how unlike Him I am in my flesh.

Eliphaz spoke truly in Job 5:17-18, "Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. ¹⁸ For He bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hands make whole."  God forbid His people should be smoke in His nostrils, arrogant hypocrites who are "holier than thou" and see no need for repentance from sin in them.  When self-righteousness creeps into our hearts it makes us very sensitive to the flaws of others and simultaneously blinds us to our own wretchedness.  It does us no good to boast in our sins or to wallow in past failures when we are called to repent and do what is good.  We can look back with longing over regrettable sins of the past we cannot change, or we can turn our eyes to Jesus who is glorious for healing and wholeness.

When God reminds us of our wretched natural state, we are given the choice to dwell on our faults or to to humble ourselves in repentance and look to God who is holy, righteous and a saviour for all who cry out to Him.  I love how Jesus makes all things new, and as Christians we no longer yoked to the past as what defines us.  Our new identity is found in Jesus Christ, and our future is bright and glorious even if our past (which includes what happened earlier today!) is sordid and repulsive.  God saw our wretchedness and sent His only begotten Son Jesus so we sinners could be redeemed and forgiven.  In light of such love, let us fix our eyes and desires upon our glorious Saviour with joyful admiration.

Keeping Receipts

After making a purchase, I always request a copy of an invoice for budgeting purposes.  The paper or digital receipt is a useful record as a proof of purchase, details whether I used card or cash, and itemises the GST included in the transaction.  My wife has trained me very well at this stage to obtain a record of money spent so she can input the data into a spreadsheet.

I read an article today about a person who was described as being known to "keep receipts."  The context was not in the sense of purchasing, but it was a reference to her habit of filing away past slights or offences with intent to produce them years later--keeping a record of wrongs.  When we experience hurt or perceived injustice, we can have a very long memory of what we suffered and hold onto it so we can throw it in the offender's face when an opportunity presents itself, when others are vulnerable.  I am reminded of many films and books where one person spoke out of pride or arrogance, and after the tide turns the same words were vengefully repeated verbatim as a taunt.  This is one who keeps receipts as social currency to insult, demean, and avenge themselves upon their enemies.

While keeping receipts for budgeting purposes can be an important facet of good financial stewardship, keeping receipts as a record of wrongs is biblically an unloving thing to do.  11 Corinthians 13:4-5 says in the NIV, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."  The wisdom of the world says it is good to keep receipts to throw in the face of those who have wronged us, and to give up the valuable record of all the offences we have endured seems weak and wasteful.  As Christians, we are called to be casting our cares upon the LORD who cares for us.  We are also called to humble ourselves to admit we have been offended when others have slighted or wounded us with their words--not to file those caustic comments with intent to avenge ourselves in the future by taking shots at them.

Some people are faithful to keep a record of their expenses year after year, and others are as diligent to keep a long, detailed record of the offences they have suffered.  This practice of keeping records of wrongs (suffered by yourself or others) with the aim to get even or triumph over them absolutely poisons people who keep them.  It is the antithesis of love to keep a record of wrongs, to simmer with anger and seek to avenge oneself.  God's wisdom leads us in the way contrary this world as Hebrews 8:12 says:  "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."  In light of God's love and mercy to us, all our receipts and records of wrongs ought to be put through a spiritual shredder by giving them to God who will render judgment.  By God's grace He helps and heals us, and those receipts need not burden us any longer.  Having been forgiven by God, we can forgive others without resentment or feeling slighted.

If we are compelled to "get back" at others, it may be we have lost sight of all God has given and we have freely received.  God gives more grace (without measure), and let us walk in His ways without keeping records of wrongs.

Blind Pride

Asking questions can be a good thing, but it is good to consider motivation why questions are asked.  "There's no such thing as a dumb question," I have heard people say, but questions can be asked with wicked intent.  We see an example of this when Eve talked with Satan in the Garden of Eden.  The crafty serpent asked in Genesis 3:1, "...Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"  Satan knew very well what God said; he was not ignorant of what had God clearly spoken to Adam.  His question paved the way for an opportunity for him to criticise and contradict God and lure Eve into sin.  Satan's tactics and aims reveal a proud heart can ask questions with intent to find fault with or to criticise God rather than submit to His wisdom.

Satan answered God with questions in Job 1:8-12:  "Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" ⁹ So Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" ¹² And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD."  God drew Satan's attention to something He knew the devil recognised, that Job was a blameless man who feared God.  Rather than admitting God's worthiness to be feared or that Job was upright, Satan claimed Job only behaved thus because God protected and provided for him.  Satan claimed God was wrong about Job, and asserted he would curse God to his face if he lost his wealth.  God then gave permission for Satan to do his worst--but forbid him from hurting Job.

After the devil stripped Job of his wealth and killed his children in one day, in the midst of Job's grief he worshipped and blessed God.  Satan was wrong about Job, not that he would ever admit it.  The next time Satan appeared before God, the LORD asked Satan the same question:  if he had considered Job, an upright man who avoided doing any evil.  Job 2:4-6 reads, "So Satan answered the LORD and said, "Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. ⁵ But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" ⁶ And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life."  See how Satan moved the goalposts!  He ignored his previous claims and how he missed the mark, and he persisted in his view God was wrong about Job.  He implied God had unfairly stacked the deck and manipulated Job's response.  The devil said Job would curse God to His face if he was struck with a severe illness.  Again, God allowed Satan to do his worst.  Job's upright conduct showed God was right about Job all along, and it was the devil who was all wrong.  His arrogance and pride prevented him from taking away anything positive from the interaction.

Satan is the sort of being who will accuse God as evil for condemning anyone and assumes everyone deserves salvation--that God is somehow at fault for people's sin.  He would water down the Gospel so it is no longer the Gospel and powerless to save.  The fact all will not be saved is reason enough for the proud to refuse the offer of salvation God freely gives through the Gospel.  God desires all would come to repentance, but like the devil many refuse to humble themselves before God and submit to Him by faith.  They refuse to be saved by Christ because other people may not be saved.  C.H. Spurgeon's comment on infidels fits Satan and the children of pride very well:  "Infidels, poor creatures, do not know their own arguments till we tell them, and then they glean their blunted shafts to shoot them at the shield of truth again."  The evidence of Job's upright conduct was there for Satan to see and has been immortalised in God's word forever, yet it did not change the devil because he will not change.  The human will can be stronger than reason and hard evidence, and stubborn pride has led more to eternal ruin than ignorance of the truth.  The devil is proof of that.

Yoked With Christ

When Jesus invited people who were weary and heavy laden to take His yoke upon them and learn humility from Him in Matthew 11:28-30, it is ironic because it was a call to labour.  The realisation people are weary and burdened does not lead us to suggest placing a yoke on their shoulders as a solution.  We tell them to take a break, to cease from labour!  The point is, Jesus is easily able to carry all loads that burden and crush us, and by submissive labour by the side of Jesus we will find rest for our souls.  His yoke is easy and His burden light because Jesus is mighty, strong and our Saviour.  In drawing near to Jesus by faith and labouring alongside with Him, Christians find joyful rest.

As someone who worked in a building trade for more than a decade, one of the things drummed into workers was the need to learn to work and talk at the same time.  Some people never learn this lesson:  when they begin talking, their hands stop working.  Workers who were slow to learn this lesson worked alone until they did.  While working with Jesus does not always take the form of manual labour, Paul called out Christians in the Corinthian church who had become distracted from Christ and factional over their preferred preachers or loyalties due to whom God personally used in their lives.  People like Paul and Apollos were elevated by great people who esteemed them for the fruitfulness of their ministry.  Paul exhorted the people to return to the unity they had by faith in Jesus and to glorify Him, knowing it was Christ who will reward His faithful followers.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9:  "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. ⁸ Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. ⁹ For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building."  Men of God like Paul and Apollos were only fruitful because they were "of God" and ministers who could only offer others what God freely provided for them.  One planted, another watered, and God gave the increase.  Again and again Paul downplayed the glorification of people who do God's work--people who were the epitome of faithful labourers--because God is responsible for all spiritual fruitfulness.

All Christians are called to work together with Jesus, and each one of us will receive our own reward according to our labour and all by His grace.  The last verse is an amazing truth:  in Christ we are God's fellow workers; we are God's field and His building.  God chooses to plant the good seed of His word in us that bears spiritual fruit.  Our lives have been built on the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ who is the chief Cornerstone.  We are God's servants, His purchased possession and chosen dwelling place.  Knowing this is our identity in Christ, it ought to unify us as believers to labour together to promote Him.  We are privileged to have been given duties by our LORD and Saviour, yet at the same time who are we?  We are souls who were heavy laden who found rest in Christ.  Let us unite with those who are yoked with Christ, knowing God will give the increase.