Lend Me Your Ears

Today's passage:  II Samuel 22:1-7
     "When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid;  The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me; In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God:  and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears."
     Men are often accused of having selective hearing.  They heard "football game on TV" but not "Please ask son's teacher about such and such".  But I'm sorry to throw us under the bus ladies, I know I have it too.  Especially when I'm in the middle of doing something.  When my husband says to turn off the coffee pot warmer before I leave the house so the coffee doesn't burn, I heard what he said.  But apparently I didn't process it and really let it sink in.  Because what did I do the other day, right after he said it?  I left the house for numerous hours with the coffee pot warmer still on.  I'm fortunate to be married to a very laid-back, easygoing husband who never gives me criticism.  And I deserve a lot, I'm afraid.
   The end of verse 7 says David's cry entered into God's ears.  God always hears our prayers.  I could be wrong, but the verse that says God doesn't hear our prayer if I regard iniquity in my heart, doesn't mean He doesn't actually hear us.  He just isn't paying attention and will not answer.  Does that mean God has selective hearing too?  I guess when we refuse to relent of some sin in our life that He has pointed out to us time and time again, it does.  I suppose when we ask for something, and we are too stubborn or proud to say "I'm sorry", God ignores us.  But in the above verses, God didn't just hear David.  His prayer went into God's ears.  And unless sin is blocking our way, God always intently hears our prayers.  Have you ever been in a conversation, and had the sense that the person you were talking to was distracted, or that you didn't have their full attention?  I know sometimes I have been that person.  And I hate that because I really want to hear what the person is saying, but if my two year old is about to poke himself in the eye with a sharp object or my four year old is climbing yet again on some non-sturdy structure, my attention is going to be a little divided.  God has a whole world to listen to, but He is not once distracted by his children who are involved in some ungodly activity while another who needs His help is pouring out prayers over her little one.  He can equally hear the prayers going up at a church service and the prayers going up at the hospital.  And He doesn't just hear one and listen to the other.  They both enter into His ears.

Hear My Prayer--Taken from Standard Bible Story Readers, Book One
By Lillie A. Faris, Illustrated by O.A. Stemler and Bess Bruce Cleaveland
The Standard Publishing Company, 1925

     This is great assurance because like David, I'm living in a "flood of ungodly men".  This sinful world gets worse every day.  News stories are evidence of that. It isn't going to improve. Things might improve for individuals if they give their lives to Christ, but as a nation, as a planet, conditions will grow steadily worse.  It is a good thing that a prayer of salvation enters into God's ears and He can deliver a person from the "sorrows of hell" and the "snares of death".  It is a comfort that when I feel surrounded by sin and darkness, when evil is prevalent and engulfs me, God doesn't just hear me, my prayer enters into His ears and He will answer.
    "I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised:  so shall I be saved from mine enemies."  II Samuel 22:4

Heads or Tails

Today's passage:  I Samuel 12
    Heads, you win.  Tails, you lose.  I think some people think this is how God handles our lives.  That somehow God is up in Heaven flipping a coin, and depending on which side faces up is how He will deal with us.  I'm thankful that my God is so much more complex than that.
     Reading this passage about David's brokenness over the consequences for his sin, reminds me a bit of "Heads or Tails", not because that is how God deals with Him, but because we are apt to think that if David says some kind of magic prayer, he will end up with the heads side of the coin and everything will be hunky-dory.  God does not work that way.  If our lives were just a coin to God, why is it so many people have more Tails than Heads?  If our lives were just a flip in the air, leaving things to chance, then we would have no reason to live in a way that was pleasing to God, because the outcome would never have any connection to how we lived.

The Death of David and Bathsheba's Son--Taken from Treasures of the Bible (The United Kingdom)
By Henry Davenport Northrop, D.D.
The International Publishing Company, 1894

     In this passage, God could have spared David's unborn child.  He could have considered David's heartfelt pleas and stayed His Hand.  But He doesn't.  It is not because David got the Tails side of the coin.  It is because God knows how best to handle David's heart.  He knows how best to handle mine.  When I was a teen, there was a song by a pop music parody master that said, "I'd rather rip my heart right out of my rib cage with my bare hands and then throw it on the floor and stomp on it til I die..."  Humorous, but haven't we all had those moments?  Those times in our life when it felt like God was ripping our heart out of our chest and holding it in His bare but capable Hands?  Or worse, throwing it to the floor and stomping on it?  David's face to the ground, his eyes overflowing with tears, his heart too full for food or company is pleading for God's mercy.  Doesn't God hear him?  Shouldn't God spare him?  I can't answer that.  I can't understand God's ways.  I know that David is not the only one who had sinned.  Who knows that God's decision to bring this judgement might not have been for Bathsheba?  He was holding her heart too.  God was not up in Heaven, laughing deviously, flipping a coin, saying, "Well, let's see how this all comes out.  I'll let this nickel decide."  God is purposeful.  God is just.  God wants my worship.  God wants my best.  He knows best how to achieve those things in my life, and in the lives of others.  And since I am not a navigator of hearts, I am not a spelunker of those inner caverns, I cannot pretend to know what God already does.  He holds that pulsating center of thoughts and emotions in His hands, and He knows how tightly to squeeze to get it pumping again.  He knows just how much pressure to apply to make it pulse for Him.
     Poor David.  I can say that, and my emotions be little affected because I didn't know him.  I can objectively read this passage and not be touched by his pain.  But there are people who have impacted my life, who may be in a similar situation as David was.  No, they may not be about to lose a child (or they may be), they may not have sinned as egregiously as David did, yet their sin is costing them.  God may have their heart that is in no way connected to mistakes or unholiness.  Those Davids may be beseeching God for mercy in their lives.  And God will give it.  But not necessarily in the situation they are in.  After God took David's child, despite the broken heart, the earnest prayers, God was merciful.  How?  God gave David another son, Solomon.  And He allowed him to win another battle against the Ammonites, the battle they should have won when Uriah was killed.  God created us.  He knows how best to keep us alive and afresh for Him.  Just because I say it doesn't make us automaton's devoid of emotion and reason, yahooing every difficult circumstance in our lives.  But it makes me feel a whole lot better knowing that the One who created my heart, knows exactly what to do with it.  And that gives me much more peace than a coin flip.

Bread-Making Day

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 5
     When I was a little girl, I have a clear memory of my Mom making fresh-baked bread.  I don't remember ever watching her assemble the dough, punching it and kneading it to get it bake-ready, but I remember the smell of that home-made bread.  The aroma filled the house.  I also remember having to be very careful shutting doors.  As I am not much of a baker, I don't know if that still applies today.  Anything that would send a jolt through the house, might cause the bread to fall, instead of rise.  You always want the bread to rise.  I never remember my grandmother baking bread.  Maybe that is because she lived down the road from the quarry, whose blasts we could hear nearly every day.  Baking in her house might have been highly unsuccessful.  In any case, there were occasions when Mom would pull the bread from the oven and it looked like a sinkhole had pulled the dough into itself.  When this occurred, we never celebrated.  We never cheered that the bread had deflated.  It was sad.  As the bread smell wafts through the house, you salivate and impatiently wait for the sound of the oven timer.  You have knife and plate ready to spread a pad of melting butter and crunch into the crispy crust. How disappointing when Mom would pull it from the oven and it was inedible, trying to whoa the taste buds until the next bread-making day.
     "Your glorying is not good.  Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?"  Paul is chastening the church in Corinth for allowing someone who is openly practicing his sin to remain in the church.  Allowing it signals approval.  I am not even going to attempt to get into church discipline, I will leave that to a pastor, but I think there are some obvious teachings from the Scriptures that make it very clear that some situations have no business remaining in the church.  The Scriptures are very candid about unrepentant believers being admitted fellowship in the local congregation.  We live in a world of tolerance.  But we cannot be tolerant at any price.  The price being, that if a believer participating in a particular sin, and unwilling to relinquish it remains, it may start to grow in other areas of the church.  Why?  Because if he is allowed to remain, it seems as if it is okay.  If it is okay, then it will spread.  This is what Paul fears.  He admonishes the Corinthians to put this man out, since he appears to be unrepentant. 
     I don't ever remember eating a collapsed loaf of bread.  It is yeasty, doughy and not tasty.  It completely contrasts with the loaf we were expecting to get.  We usually threw it out.  A Christian who openly practices and participates in sin, without remorse, is like the bread that has not risen.  Everyone expects something quite different than what comes out of the oven.  A person who calls himself a Christian but practices the ways of the world, delivers a wrong concept about Christianity.  Whether we like it or not, the world holds us to a higher standard.  If we live less than the expectations, it is like delivering an unrisen loaf of bread.  The world expects to see that knife-ready golden crust.  They smell the home-made bread aroma throughout the house and have a good idea what a loaf should look and taste like.  It doesn't mean they will partake, but our lives should be enticing to them.  It should be pleasant to the eyes and nose.  None of us is perfect, but even the world knows activities a Christian should not be involved.  Just as we should not be proud when the bread does not rise, neither should we be happy about a Christian who falls away and refuses to repent.  We should not encourage them by keeping them in the church, but we should not whoop and holler because he has to be thrown out.  Neither response is desirable.  Wouldn't it be better if the Christian would just admit his sin, repent and be allowed to remain in fellowship?  This is obviously the most desirable outcome.  We want every Christian to thrive.  We want every Christian to walk with the Lord, but if he refuses to see the error of his ways, we do no favors to ourselves and to our churches by keeping inedible bread.  Maybe one day, he will scrap the old dough and be allowed to rise again.  That is the sincere hope.  Bread that rises is always something to anticipate.

Listening with the Heart

Today's passage:  I Samuel 15:12-35
     Both times when Saul is confronted with his sin of bringing back the Amalekite spoil, he says "they have brought them," and "for the people spared".  He is not willing to take ownership of this deed.  Verse 9 says, "But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them..."    Hmmmm.  Who is telling the truth here?  God or Saul? 
     Then Saul tries to justify "their" actions by saying it was for religious reasons, to sacrifice to God.  Were they going to sacrifice King Agag to God too?  I mean, if you are going to make up a story, make sure all the pieces fit.  The Israelites were not known to give up human sacrifices, they left that to their heathen counterparts.  When Samuel presses him about this disobedience, Saul says, "Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek..." Okay, Saul, stop right there.  That's what I would have said if I had been Samuel.  When God said, "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not..." what part of that sentence meant, and bring the king back to Israel with you?
      Saul further says, "But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been uterly destroyed..."  What he did was only bring back the king, the people are the real violators here because they brought back the livestock, but he adds, "to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal."  So, really, they were thinking about God so its not as bad as that, is it Samuel?  Even if this was all true, even if Saul had only brought back Agag which God said not to do, the people follow their leader.  If King Saul brings something back, it stands to reason that they would too.        
     Only when Samuel pronounces Saul's punishment does Saul come anywhere close to confessing his sin, and even then, I'm not sure he is repentant.  It is like the child who steals the cookie from the cookie jar and once caught, promises never to do that again, and says over and over, "I love you, Mommy, I love you Mommy, I love you Mommy" to avoid his spanking.  In his confession, he tells Samuel that it is because he feared the people that he disobeyed.  So now it is the people's fault?

Saul tears Samuel's Robe--Taken from Treasures of the Bible
By Henry Davenport Northrop
International Publishing Company, 1894

     Then Samuel says something very interesting to Saul which I think prompts a true confession.  Samuel says, "And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent:  for he is not a man, that he should repent."  It is almost as if Samuel has to go back to the basics with Saul.  He has to remind Saul that God is not a man.  God doesn't lie.  God doesn't make a mistake.  It is almost as if Saul had forgotten that God could not be at fault for this.  Being king, he had been used to laying the blame on others.  It had become his habit to allow others to become his scapegoats.  He couldn't do that with God.  He had forgotten that God will not be a scapegoat.  He needed to be reminded that Someone was higher than the king, and that Someone does not make a mistake.  When Saul realizes this, that he is not going to fool the Lord, he comes clean.  It takes a while to get there, but he is at last able to recognize his wrong, without making excuses, and without throwing anyone else under the bus.
     Saul could fool Samuel.  Saul could fool the elders.  Saul could fool the other nations, but God will never be fooled.  He sees the heart, and it is because He sees the heart that Saul will be replaced.  Maybe Saul was genuinely repentant on this occasion, but God knew that it would take reminder after reminder to make Saul the king he ought to be.  God was not interested in continuing that process, at least, not while Saul was on the throne.  God never gives up on us.  He works with us to get us where He wants us to go, but not always in the position we are in.  Sometimes He has to knock us off our thrones so we will listen.  When we are surrounded by all our worldly comforts, we can drown out His Voice.  It takes a lot to hear Him amid all the distractions.  When He takes things away from us, it is so He can get us to a place where we hear Him.  Really hear Him, not the "Yes, dear" kind of hearing that spouses so often give.  He wants us to listen.  Intently. 
    Does that ever happen for Saul?  I can't see that it does.  He doesn't exactly wear earplugs, more like earmuffs.  He hears God, but he never really listens.  God's instructions are like the adult "Wa, wa, wa" in a Peanuts cartoon.  We can listen with our ears, but if we don't listen with our heart too, we haven't really heard anything.  When God tells us something, and we don't respond emotionally to it, I'm not sure we have actually responded.  Going through the motions, not the emotions.  That doesn't mean we have to be a crying mess in everything we do, but doesn't God say to do things "heartily"?  Saul heard with his ears, but he never heard God with his heart.  When I feel that disconnect with God, in my prayer time, in my Bible time, when I am witnessing to someone, I have to ask myself, am I really listening?  My ears are open, is my heart?