Bearing Names to God

Scripture:         As a jeweler engraves signets, so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree.  And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance. Exodus 28:11-12

Observation:    God is laying out the uniform that the high priest was to wear when he entered the presence of God.  Stones of remembrance once again play a part.  Aaron is to engrave 12 stones with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel.  That way, when he comes before the Lord, he bears their names.  It helps him remember he is a representative of the people, speaking to God about them.              

Application:    Twofold.  First, this confirms a growing sense in my heart that we are to be speaking to God about people before speaking to people about God.  That our decision to create prayer cards that we could write names of our friends we are asking God to bring to Christ was on target.  We need to bear the names of those around us to God.  This month, our staff will be taking those names that over 130 of our people submitted for prayer and praying weekly for them.

            Second, I sense that God is asking me to write the names of my wife and children on stones and each morning, take one with me as I go off to work.  This way, whenever I brush against that stone, I can pause and bear their name to God.

Prayer:             God, thanks for continuing to love and guide me.  Especially in the area of bearing people’s names to You.  Help me follow through with this and grow in seeing you answer prayer.

He Says What He Does and Does What He Says

Scripture:         And the Lord set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.”  And the next day the Lord did this thing. Exodus 9:5

Observation:    In the middle of the fifth plague God sent to pressure Pharaoh, Moses makes this simple statement.  God set a time and said something would happen.  Then he made that thing happen at that time.  Short and sweet.  God does whatever he wants and no purpose of his can be thwarted.         

Application:  If I believe this, why don’t I pray like it?  Why don’t I ask bigger things of the God who says what he is going to do, then does it every time?  Why do I limit my prayers to “Help me have a good day?”         

Prayer: I am asking you, God, to bring the people on my prayer card to faith in Christ.  I am asking because only you can do this thing, and if you say you will, you will.  I also ask that you give me the answer in my heart to a question I have been asking you.  Would you make it crazy clear. 

When Mercy Leads to Hardness

Scripture:         But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.  Exodus 8:15

Observation:    Pharaoh is reacting to the plagues God sent to convince him to free the Israelites from slavery.  This plague happened to be the unleashing of millions of frogs.  Pharaoh pleads with Moses to remove the frogs, and he will let the people go.  Moses prays, God relents, and the frogs are gone.  Once the immediacy of the threat has passed, Pharaoh’s heart goes hard again.

            How often is this pattern repeated in our lives?  In the middle of crisis, we pray, we repent, we promise.  When the crisis passes, we forget our words, or worse, we harden our hearts.  Until the next crisis, that is. 

            Like Pharaoh, we especially do this with sin.  When we sin, and we are staring down the barrel of consequences, we will say anything to find a little mercy.  But does this brush with discipline change us?  Do we come out of it closer to God, more ready to listen?  Or does the mercy of God lead us to hardness?

Application:    I can see this in my life during my times of prayer.  In the middle of it, God will point out some sin, or call me to some action.  I wholeheartedly agree, and genuinely repent.  But then I get up.  Then the day fills.  And the words are forgotten.  

Prayer:             God, I pray today that you help me see that a respite does not mean a release from obeying and listening to you.  Help me remember in the dark the things you tell me in the light with you.  Open my heart today to recall things we have talked about, that I might keep a soft heart towards your words.

Carrying the Burden

Scripture:  In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” Genesis 42:21

Observation:    Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers when he was 17.  He was probably 39 when his brothers came to Joseph in power in Egypt.  This is a difference of 12 years.  When Joseph, unrecognized by his brothers, throws them in jail for three days under the charge of being spies, they quickly connect their present consequence from the earlier sin of selling their brother into slavery.  This means that the guilt from that act had lingered for 12 years.  I am not sure if this was something they thought about often, or if it just now entered their minds at this moment.  Unless they were completely cold hearted, I have to think that the guilt of what they had done to their brother weighed upon them and dogged them all those years.  Reuben points out his disagreement with the plan, so perhaps they had even argued among themselves.

Application:    Ultimately, God used for good what they had meant for evil.  Even their confession here, overheard by Joseph, was used by God.  But what stuns me is the reality that the guilt of unrepentant sin is not assuaged by time.  That 12 days, 12 months, 12 years later, the guilt of their actions haunts them.  I wonder what it was like to carry that weight with them for over a decade.   

Prayer:             God, I pray that you help me to confess sin quickly to you.  Help me not keep secrets that burden me, so that anytime something bad happens I am quick to think the two are connected.  Let me experience the freedom of unburdening myself with you and others.

The Practical Atheist Family

Scripture:         Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, Genesis 27:41

Observation:    Esau’s mother and brother conspire to swindle him out of the diving blessing from Isaac, to insure the divine blessing goes to the right brother, Jacob.  I feel sorry for this family.  Yes, in the end, it seems like the right man was chosen.  Yes, it seems people like Rebekah had noble goals.  Yes it seems the end was achieved, no matter the means.  But this is one dysfunctional family.  They all suffer from the same affliction—they trust themselves more than their faith.

            Rebekah trusted her schemes over her faith.

            Jacob trusted his mother and his ability to pull off a con more than his faith.

            Esau trusted his gut more than his faith.

            Isaac trusted his senses more than his faith.

Things “worked out” but I cannot help but wonder what God would have done with a family willing to stop and listen, to act with integrity and honesty. 

Application:   This family is a great example of what our church talked about Sunday.  Borrowing a phrase from Craig Groeschel, these people are “Practical Atheists.”  They believe in God, but none of them act like he exists. 

            I think my take away is simple:  I don’t want my family to be like this.  We give lip service to God, but then trust in our own selves instead of faith.

Prayer: God, protect my family from faithlessness.  Help us to see you.  I pray especially for our dinner devotional times.  They have been difficult lately, as we cannot seem to get far with them.  Would you help me lead these well?

What Does Earning the Father's Love Do to You?

Scripture:

When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Genesis 25:27,28

Observation:    I wonder how much of the trajectory of Jacob’s life was affected by the fact that is dad preferred his brother over him?  That his father’s love seemed to be conditional on what Jacob did and not on who he was.  The text does not say, “And Isaac loved Jacob because he was his son.”  The rest of Jacob’s life seems to be a series of attempts to earn or steal, starting with the theft of his father’s blessing.  It is like Jacob is chasing the approval he never received, and has decided it is up to him and his own efforts to get it.

David Benner, in his book, Surrender to Love, asks, “Imagine God thinking about you.  What do you assume God feels when you come to mind?”  For most people, it is an expression of disappointment, disgust, or anger.  Benner says that people with this image of God will respond with “an effort to earn his approval.” 

Application:    Do my kids each feel in their gut that I love them, no matter what they do or love?  I have 4 kids with 4 different tastes.  Some very different from mine.  I do not want them to feel their worth in my eyes is related to them being a man of the field, or eating of their game.  I need to take time tonight to share with each child my love for them.  I’m going to tell each of them I love them tonight.

Prayer: God, may I always be quick to love my kids, no matter their tastes or personality.  May they be secure in my love, and secure in Yours.

A Healthy Sense of Shame

Scripture:         When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” Genesis 9:24-25

Observation:    Noah has too much to drink and passes out naked in his tent.  His son, Ham (father of Canaan), sees him and ridicules him.  From one act, Ham and his entire lineage is cursed.  What was the big deal?  

            There are many parallels between this act and the fall.  Both incidents involved food—the fruit of the tree and the fruit of the vine.  Both of these involved nakedness.  Both of these resulted in a curse.  Back in Noah’s day, nakedness was a reminder of the fall, a reminder of the shame of separation.  So to be naked or revel in nakedness was a shameful act.

            Noah blew it, not by drinking, but by getting drunk and allowing his sons to see him in shame.  Ham ridicules while Shem and Japheth refuse to engage.  They go out of their way to honor their father, and to reject delight in nakedness.  Shem and Japheth show a sense of shame before God; Ham does not.

            It is not a simple joke that curses Ham.  It is the lack of shame before God that his actions evidence.  His descendants, the Canaanites, would be cursed, ruled over, and defeated by his brothers.  It is no coincidences that nakedness and sexual sin were hallmarks of Canaanite society.  The entire tribe showed a lack of healthy shame before God.

            God blesses those who have a healthy sense of shame.  Jewish Rabbis wrote in the Talmud that one who possessed no proper sense of shame “did not have his feet present at Mount Sinai.”  While shame is often abused and misused today, I tend to agree with these Rabbis.  There is such thing as a healthy sense of shame.  A quick look at our culture shows a society that has been severed from Mount Sinai.

Application:    How do I live out and pass on a healthy sense of shame to my kids?  In our house, we use the words “inappropriate” to describe certain TV shows, music, or movies.  Have I become lax towards shame?  Has soaking in our culture inured me towards shame?    

Prayer:             God, I do not want to be like Ham, reveling in what is shameful.  Help retune my sensitivity today towards sin.  Give me a healthy sense of shame.

When God Was Sorry.

Scripture:  And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.  So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” Genesis 6:7-8

Observation:    This is a painful thing to hear.  The Lord regretted making us.  We grieved him.  He is sorry.  I have a difficult time reconciling these words with the sovereignty of God.  I mean, God knew when he made us that we would turn out this way.  Heck, he knew before he even created time that one day we would betray him and rebel.  How then could he say words like this, words that sound like a God who is surprised by the actions of his creation.  I don’t think the meaning here is that God changed his mind or made a mistake.  Rather, it seems to be trying to capture his immense sorrow. 

On the one hand, I have no power over God.  I do not hold the power to please him or pain him.  His well being is not dependent on my actions.  On the other hand, it is clear that we humans do affect his heart.  He is not a cold, calculating God, who is indifferent to the lives of his people.  He is a God whose heart aches for the loss of his loved ones, who hurts when we pursue wickedness, who regrets the separation from his children.

Application:    Sometimes as a father, I find myself angry with my kids when they disobey.  But often, that anger is due to the lack of control I seem to have over them.  I am mad they will not obey me.  But the emotion God shows here says to me that God is not mad because he lacks control over us.  He is sorrowful for the pain and evil we bring upon ourselves due to sin.  As I look at my kids’ disobedience, is my heart moved with compassion for how their disobedience can hurt them and separate them from God, or am I just frustrated they won’t do what I say?

Prayer:  God, when my kids disobey, move my heart away from self-focus and anger, and towards a genuine desire to see them walking with you in the truth.  Let my role be corrector, not enforcer of my rule.   Give me a heart like yours.

Not All Who Wander Are Lost (but sometimes they are).

Scripture:         You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Genesis 4:12

Observation:    Cain’s rash act of murder results in a lifetime curse.  Not only will the ground he had tilled so well now turn against him, but he is to be banished.  His parents’ sin resulted in banishment from a place (the garden) and God’s presence.  Cain has taken life and his punishment is permanent alienation from his family and his God.  He has been kicked out of the family. 

At first, his punishment seems light.  Murder results in wandering?  But the more I understand this, the more gruesome it becomes.  Cain is not just going to be a wanderer; he will wander without God.  

There is a bumper sticker in Colorado Springs that says, “All who wander are not lost.”  That may be, but for Cain, he was doomed to wander AND be lost, separated from God.  Was there room for repentance?  Reconciliation?  Sadly, it does not seem so.  Cain’s curse was not the mark.  It was the prospect of life WITHOUT God. 

  

Application:    This year, our church is studying the parables of Jesus, to learn what journeying with God versus without God looks like.  Like Cain, there are thousands of people in our city who are wandering without God.  Unlike Cain, they still have a chance to come to Christ and go with God.  This year, I want to get serious about praying for those I know without God.  This text has reminded me of the terrible curse of living without God.  I want to begin praying for three houses I know on my street where there are people living without God.

Prayer: God, I ask you to give me a heart of prayer for those I know who are wandering without you.  Will you bring them to faith this year?  Will you give me opportunities to love them to you, and share with them the journey home?