Thus says the LORD, You shall not go up or fight against your relatives. Return every man to his home, for this thing is from me. So they listened to the word of the LORD and returned and did not go against Jeroboam. -- 2 Chronicles 11:4
This thing is from Me. It is critical to know when something has
come from God. We can take the attitude –
and it’s possibly the best default approach, that everything is from Him, that
there are no “second causes”, that God is in control of everything and nothing
can happen without His permission. In an
overall sense, this is true. He’s God;
He does as He pleases. That’s pretty
close to what the Bible often seems to tell us.
Even when something is instigated or incited by the Lord,
our response is not necessarily supposed to be the same in every case. In the passage quoted, the Lord, because of
Solomon’s foolishness toward the end of his life, had decreed that the kingdom
be divided. He raised up a rival in
Jeroboam and left only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to the line of
David. Through a prophet the word comes
that the king of Judah and those who follow him must accept this turn of
events.
Conversely, we sometimes see God sending enemies against His
people that those enemies might be defeated and punished. The Lord did not, in those cases, desire
passive acceptance but rather aggressive and active resistance. “Que Sera Sera” is not a Christian song. Life really is an adventure for us. Routine and formulaic responses are of
minimal use to us. Sometimes we fight;
sometimes we surrender. Sometimes we
have to fight a while before we surrender, or surrender a while before we
fight. I wish I had a rule of thumb or a
guide or something to tell me which scenario I’m in this time.
We do have a guide, but it’s not a thing, it’s a Him. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is here, with us and in us, giving us
peace about what is happening and how we are responding. When it runs contrary to our old natures –
whether that’s because we’re naturally passive or naturally aggressive – we have
to deny ourselves. That’s what it means
to die to self, to crucify the flesh.
From a practical point of view, when we are in the place of
decision, the Lord will meet us where we are.
I think more “advanced” saints need less outside confirmation than some
of the rest of us. Early on, I had a lot
of people around me who would give me “good words” that resonated and helped me
get going the right way. It’s like having
training wheels on your bicycle. I
really wouldn’t want training wheels on my motorcycle because I couldn’t corner
at speed. Over time and through
experience, we are expected to grow and develop our relationship in the Spirit
to the point where we can confidently seek Him and know His will in any
situation.
There will always, though, be places where we run out of
understanding, where the light seems to fail at the most crucial passage. Abraham with the knife raised over Isaac,
David fleeing from Absalom, Paul wasting his last days in a Roman prison, even perhaps
the Lord Himself crying out, Why have You forsaken Me? In those dark corridors we put it all in the
hands of God and walk by faith, not by sight.
5 comments:
Training wheels. I like that idea, it's a good way to describe what seems to happen.
There are a lot more scrapes and bruises when they come off, but it's a lot more fun, too.
Sometimes I wanna put the training wheels back on and other times I wanna ride with no brakes, downhill.
I find it amazing how many matters of faith don't seem to make any sense until later, when we see more of the big picture, then it makes perfect sense.
I agree, Ben. I'm fascinated by that, and it's one of the things I try to convey to the grandkids, in particular.
Post a Comment