More Ovaltine

Yes, I'm still stuck on Amos 3:7, and, despite enjoying what little actual government shutdown is going on, I am still having a kind of bumpy week.

For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.

I need to know what God is doing, what He wants done.  I don’t think He is too concerned about a shutdown of the federal government.  I knew a man who used to pray for the national debt.  It doesn’t seem like he did much good.  Maybe he gave up.  Perhaps it would have been more productive to pray that people would turn from idolatry and live holy lives by faith in Christ.  Holy people are not going to be supportive of the kinds of policies that lead to massive government debt.  Western nations are being systematically destroyed because they have deified democracy and made government into a false god.  It does not matter how successful this effort appears in the short term, the long term is very, very patient. 

If I want the Lord to do something in my life, to give me a reason for my existence and a destiny toward which I may chart my course, He has to reveal that to me.  I can make up something and visualize it.  I may even be able to bring it to pass.  The combination of human reason, imagination, and will is a powerful force that can achieve much.  It may even reach an end that would be judged objectively good.  Apart from God, though, even the most glorious of temporal victories will pass away like a vapor. 

I am not a prophet in the sense that Amos or Ezekiel was.  Most likely no one reading this is either.  Nevertheless, we can know what is real, what is true, and what is God’s will.  The first step toward a higher insight is to stop letting the world dictate to us and fit us into its mold.  That’s what Romans 12:1-2 states, pretty plainly:  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  Instead of offering ourselves for the world to use, we can offer ourselves to the Lord, who will give us understanding and godly wisdom.  Try it out, Paul says.  I need to test my choices, my thoughts, my imaginations by prayer and by God’s word.  I can know if I am out of sync.

A lot of people claim to know what the future holds.  The vast majority are speaking out of the fog of fleshly thinking.  They will be, ultimately, wrong.  My job is much less prognostication than humble seeking and vigilant obedience.  The ends will take care of themselves.       

Drink Your Ovaltine

For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. – Amos 3:7

Back in Genesis when the Lord was about to destroy the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord revealed His plan to Abraham:  The LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do…?  This led to Abraham’s intercession for the city, chiefly on behalf of his nephew, Lot, and his family.  Abraham had earlier intervened on behalf of those cities of the plain when they were taken captive by Chedorlaomer, king of Elam and his allies.  That military expedition had been undertaken to rescue Lot as well. 

I have some nephews like that, one of whom is doing time in a federal lock-up.  He’s the reason I was never too interested in “Breaking Bad”.  I figure it’s a little too close to home.  He’s one of those guys you can’t help liking.  Lot was probably the same way.  They have “good hearts”; they just can’t stay out of trouble, especially when it involves easy living and easy money.  Unfortunately, as both my nephew and Abraham’s learned, easy living often leads to bondage, loss, devastation, and humiliation. 

The question, though, is what Amos is trying to tell us when he says that the Lord doesn’t do anything unless He tells His prophets?  Perhaps we could think of it as God limiting Himself to boundaries set by His revelation.  Through the Law of Moses God revealed Himself to His people, Israel, and worked mainly within the confines of the law.  The writing prophets began to speak of and describe a time when God would reveal Himself to man in a more extensive, personal way through the Messiah who was to come.  In the Incarnation, the Lord blew out the boundaries and revealed all that man could possibly comprehend of Him. 

If you want to know the secret -- the mystery, as Paul says, of what is going on and where history is headed, you want to study Christ.  What the Lord is doing now is revealed to us in Christ Jesus.  Where we are going, the goal, the Omega Point can be known in and through the Last Adam.

God has not abandoned us to find our own way to the end of history.  He is not on mute.  We sometimes get so caught up in the roundabouts of daily life that we forget there is a destination.  Time with the Lord helps us stop driving in circles and hit the right exit.  The direction we seek, the destiny for which we were put on this journey to begin with is right there in Christ.  

It is easy to get overwhelmed and end up lost and out of gas still far from our goal.  That, too, is the grace of God, a chance for Him to restore us and get us back on the right way.