Allow me to share with you a part of the song they sang in
praise to God right after they crossed the Red Sea:
“11 Who is like You, O
Lord, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out Your right hand;
The earth swallowed them.
13 You in Your mercy have led forth
The people whom You have redeemed;
You have guided them in Your strength
To Your holy habitation."
That happened before all the bad/sad stuff we have been looking
at the last few days. How could they praise Him so highly and then accuse Him
of taking them into the desert to die?
The truth is that following that group from Egypt to Canaan
is like riding a roller coaster. They are up, way up. Then they go down, way
down. God is the best and then He is the worst.
Why?
There is a clue in their song of praise above. They sang
"Who is like you O Lord among gods...?" Lord among gods? What gods?
Don't they know there is only one God? Apparently not.
Paul's warning to Corinth was simple: "When you think
you have the world by the tail watch out, or you will flop on your face."
Again why? How could they go so quickly from praising to
murmuring, from dancing to cursing? Do we do that? Yes we do and here is the
answer to why. It's going to be hard to hear but it's the truth and Jesus said
the truth will set us free.
People that go up and down like a roller coaster between
faith and despair are people who worship their circumstances rather than
worshipping God. Ouch. When times are good we are happy with God and when times
are tough we turn on Him like a raging bull. When times are good we throw Him a
thank you and go back to life as usual. He may not hear from us for weeks or
months or... but when a crisis comes His phone never stops ringing. We ask Him
where He is. We accuse Him of abandoning us. We of course don't really want
Him. We just want Him to right the ship of our circumstances so we can go back
to what we were doing. Ouch.
It's easy to feel invincible when all is going as planned and
there isn't a cloud in sight. People admire us. Boss promotes us. Friends are
drawn to us. Life is good. Watch out says Paul. The Israelites were riding
high, singing and dancing and bragging about their God. Three days later they
turned on Him like a pack of wolves on a wounded deer. That's right. 3 days. 72
hours. Mountain top to the depths of despair. Want a quote?
"And the people complained..."
There is a better way to live. There is a more authentic way
to worship. It won't make the headlines. It may not draw a crowd. At times
people may even pity or mock you for being a fool. However none of that can rob
you of the "peace that passes understanding."
Do you know what the peace that passes understanding is? It's
peace that is unaffected by circumstances. It's an Outlook that doesn't lurch
from crisis to crisis or swing from mountain tops to dark valleys.
Have you ever grown a garden? Ever grown a garden in a dry
summer? The leaves wilt or burn or both. Nothing thrives. Little or nothing is
produced. Some plants even die. Did you ever notice that while your garden
suffers the trees are fine? Do you know why? Gardens grow on the surface. Their
roots are shallow. Too little rain and they die. Too much rain and they drown.
Circumstances are everything. Trees are a different story. They don't drown
when it rains too much and they don't wilt when it doesn't rain enough. They
have deep roots. Roots that are fed by a source unaffected by the ups and downs
on the surface.
So how is it with us? Are we rooted in God or in the shallow
ebb and flow of life? Those rooted in God know it won't always rain just the
right amount. Sometimes it won't rain at all. Jesus said "In this world
you will have trouble..." Truth. It's much better than the empty
sentimental rooted in nothing platitudes of "Everything will be ok."
No sometimes nothing will be ok. Sometimes your best friends will deny they even
know you. Sometimes the people who stood beside you singing God's praises will
turn around and m stab you in the back. Sometimes your best friend will die too
soon and your other friends will ask "Where is your mighty God now?"
All of that and worse happened to Jesus. How did He react? He
said "Father forgive them, they don't know..."
No comments:
Post a comment