Tag: right and wrong

The Right Side of the Law

OLD TESTAMENT: Lamentations 3

POETRY: Psalm 119:113-120

NEW TESTAMENT: Revelation 8

“For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.” — Isaiah 33:22 NIV

Hate is a strong word. I tend to avoid using it because it feels so absolute. There’s no wiggle room for love when you use the word hate. Sure, I don’t love waiting in the drive thru of McDonald’s for half an hour when I only ordered a large number 7 with a Diet Coke, but I do love listening to Spotify. In thirty minutes I can listen to maybe ten songs, and those ten streams made the lucky artist approximately $0.04! It’s all about perspective… (I was not lovin’ it)

Verse 13 in Psalm 119 makes two things absolutely clear, “I hate double-minded people, but I love your law.” I put the reference to Isaiah at the top of this post because today’s selection of poetry calls to mind one of the titles we use to address God: the Judge. Lawful diction is used throughout the passage with words like statutes, decrees, and commands. We are reminded that our God is a just one, so imagine the blessings in store for us if we keep on choosing to honor the laws he laid out for our life.

If that doesn’t light a fire under you, then I recommend rereading the end of the selection, which states, “You reject all who stray from your decrees, for their delusions come to nothing. All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross; therefore I love your statutes. My flesh trembles in fear of you; I stand in awe of your laws.” (Psalm 119: 118-120 NIV) 

There are two sides on the coin of justice. I don’t always know which side my decisions land on but I know that I don’t want to be rejected by Him, so it’s important to continue studying Scripture and to develop a relationship with the Lord. Then we can stop relying on probability, flipping a coin with every choice, and just rest in his sustaining power.

— Austin Kizer

Reflection Questions

  1. Are there areas of your life that have “wiggle room” for more of the Lord? Consider how you can invite God into those moments and listen for Him.
  2. It’s easy to focus on our wrongdoings, so ponder and celebrate times you felt like you brought honor to God. How are you honoring the Lord on a daily basis?
  3. What “evildoers” do you need to stay away from? How are you keeping up your shield and taking refuge in Him?

sglcalendar2024Download

What is Right?

2 Samuel 6

March 9

Sometimes we have a hard time distinguishing – what is right? But God doesn’t. God is right.

In 2 Samuel 6, David was excitedly bringing the ark of the covenant, which was a physical symbol of God’s throne and sovereignty, to the royal city of Jerusalem. He wanted to honor God and set an example for the Israelites by showing the proper respect, worship and awe of God and he wanted to bring God’s presence into his holy city. This was a very good and right plan. God likes to be honored.

However, the Levites were supposed to be responsible for moving the ark of the covenant by following the law given by God as to HOW to move the sacred ark. God had earlier given rather specific directions on how it was to be moved. It was not to be touched. Covered with layers of curtain, sea cow hides, and a blue cloth, the ark was to be carried on poles stretched across the shoulders of the Levites. Generations before, God had specifically said, “They must not touch the holy things or they will die.” (Numbers 4:15). But, those rules and consequences had been given so long ago…

Rather than following God’s rules, they were doing things the way they had seen others do. They were following what had been advised and done by the pagan Philistines who had earlier captured the ark of God, been greatly afflicted because of it, and returned it to Israel on a new cart. (That is also a great account about the ark of the covenant found in 1 Samuel 5 & 6. )

So now the Israelites were moving the ark of God on a new cart, just as they had seen others do before. The oxen stumbled and the cart jerked and the ark shifted and well-meaning, but wrong, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark. He died immediately for touching the holy things that God had said to not touch.

It is so much easier getting into trouble because we don’t do things the right way when we dumbly follow the example of the ungodly rather than the law of God. And it’s not just the Israelites of David’s day, it is a common problem with Christians today as well. What are things that God has said are wrong that society says are fine? And way too many of God’s people are following in the ways of the world instead of remaining firmly rooted in God’s directions for holy living? We aren’t supposed to do things the way we see others do them: lying, cheating, gossiping, divorce and remarriage, addictions, abortion, living together before marriage, one night stands, disrespecting our parents and leaders, homosexuality, course joking, hurting others, touching the ark of the covenant. There are reasons for God’s rules and they are right. He is a righteous God and there are and will be consequences for disregarding God’s right way.

At Uzzah’s sudden death, David was angry and afraid of the Lord. It seemed God was harsh and cruel. This is often what happens when a righteous God does what He says He will do when people who are wrong fail to follow God’s right way and heed His warnings.

Luckily, David doesn’t stay in this mindset. After leaving the ark behind for three months, they try again. THIS time David makes sure they do it the right way. The Levites are ready to do the job the way God had designed and instructed. There is no cart and no touching the ark. The story is also retold in 1 Chronicles 15 and there it specifically records David as saying to the Levites, “‘It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.’  So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves in order to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. 15 And the Levites carried the ark of God with the poles on their shoulders, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the Lord.”(1 Chronicles 15:13-15 NIV)

Rather than continuing to be angry with God, David searched to see what was right. How could they fix the mistake they had made? How could they try again to do it right in the eyes of God? And God was pleased as they entered Jerusalem with the ark upon the shoulders of the Levites.

-Marcia Railton

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

  1. In what way(s) have you followed what you have seen others do, rather than what God has directed? Have you already seen any negative consequences? How can you try again to fix the mistake and do it God’s right way instead? In nothing comes to mind, pray about it.
  2. What would be wise to do when we find we are angry with God?
  3. When David’s wife Michal saw David worshiping and praising God with dance (in his linen ephod – a sleeveless hip-length garment worn by those in service to God) she despised him. Why? What did God think of her reaction? Are you ever guilty of being more concerned about appearing proper and dignified and “royal” than lowering yourself to give God the praise He deserves? How are you willing to be humiliated in your own eyes (2 Samuel 6:22) in order to worship God?
2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

Love, Obedience, Truth

Sunday, July 16

2john1-6

2 and 3 John, Jude

Congratulations, you were born at a time when society rejects the notion of absolute truth!  The world of the late 20th and early 21st century is characterized by a movement known as Post-modernism.  It’s the age of skepticism, of subjectivity.  It’s the age when society has been systematically doing away with notions of absolute, objective truth.  The Post-modern notion is that reality is socially constructed.  A good example of this is the idea of gender.  Back in the olden days, before Post-modernism, you were either a male or a female.  The way that you knew this was fairly simple and it was based on your physical anatomy.  You were objectively a male or a female depending on how your body was equipped.  But we were so unenlightened back in those days.  Now we know that gender has nothing to do with the objective reality of your biological make up or even your  D.N.A.  It is determined by how you feel… it’s subjective and it’s fluid.

Along with the death of absolute truth in favor of subjectivity has come a change in notions of what is right and wrong.  It used to be that right and wrong were measured against a set of standards given by authority.  That authority was either God, or the laws of society.  So things like murder or stealing, or adultery were wrong.  Now, it seems,  the far greater wrong is to tell people that they are not free to do as they please.  It’s wrong to tell a man that he’s not free to marry another man or to tell a woman that she is not free to marry another woman.  It’s wrong to use the masculine pronoun “He” to refer to God… or to even say that there is a God who makes rules about what is right and what is wrong.

These changes in our worldview are troubling to older people like me, and they should be troubling to younger people, too.  However, this should not come as a surprise to any of us.  For the Bible predicted, nearly 2000 years ago, that such things would happen.  In fact, it was beginning to happen in some places even then.

In the back of your Bible are some letters that are so small they are almost invisible.  The letters of 2 and 3 John and Jude are extremely brief.  Sandwiched between the longer letter of I John and the book of Revelation, 2 and 3 John and Jude are short, but don’t dismiss them as being unimportant.  Each of them has some important things to say about the need for objective truth and the need for Christians to stay faithful to the truth and to fight for the truth.

“I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands.” II Jn 5-6.

Love is a great thing and it is at the heart of Christianity.  Jesus said that the most important command is to love God and to love others.  It’s important to understand that love is a term that is often subject to people’s arbitrary definitions.  Love has become highly subjectivized.  Love is whatever I say it is.  John here offers a corrective to this subjective, Post-modern view of love.  Love, as John defines it, is to “walk in obedience to his commands.”  Love is more than just feeling good inside about God or your neighbor.  There is objective content to love.  It’s in a different part of the Bible, but go back sometime and check out I Corinthians 13 vs. 4-7.  It gives a good, practical description of what love is… and it has very little to do with your feelings and everything to do with right actions.  Love of God and neighbor is all about doing the things that God has commanded us to do.

3” It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” – III John 3-4.  Here, John holds up the standard of truth for Christians to follow and live by.  We are to “walk in the truth.”  This has to do with obedience to an objective standard or truth.  God has things that he expects us to obey.  There is a way that God expects us to live.  Truth has objective content that we need to understand and obey.  Post-modernism has tried to jettison this idea of objective truth and replace it with our own definition.  Again, this is nothing new.  In the Old Testament book of Judges it describes a time in Israel before there were kings that’s described as follows: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25.  Just as Judges points to a time in our past history when people followed their own subjective desires rather than submitting to the objective truth of God as revealed by His word and by Jesus Christ, Jude warns of a time that was still to come when this would again be the case:  18…“In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.” Jude 18-19

As followers of Jesus, who is our true and ultimate king, we must reject this.  We must follow the teaching of our king, we must receive his instructions to us as absolute truth and we must follow him by walking in that truth.  It is sad when the people of the world abandon truth and follow their own desires.  It is absolutely  tragic when Christians abandon the absolute truth of God and fall for the subjective lies of this broken world.  And yet, many Christians have done exactly this.  Jude gives a strong admonition to all believers:3 “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”  Jude3-4

Jude wants desperately for us to not allow ourselves to be lied to by any who would distort and twist the clear objective truth of God’s word and the absolute teachings of Jesus, in order to justify their own perversions.  Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that there’s no absolute truth, no black and white or right and wrong.  There is and always will be truth, and that truth, as Jude contends, is worth fighting for.  As you go to school or university or talk at work or with your friends, or even at Church, wherever you go where some would seek to undermine the objective truth of God’s word and substitute the subjectivity of this world with its anything goes faulty belief system, stand firm, don’t give up!!

-Jeff Fletcher

(Photo Credit: https://dailybiblememe.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/2-john-16/)