He Knows...

[A month of travel has disrupted this blog, but not the flow...]

Job 12:9Who among all these does not know
that(G) the hand of the LORD has done this?
10In(H) his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind.
11Does not(I) the ear test words
as the palate tastes food?
12Wisdom is with(J) the aged,
and understanding in length of days.

13(K) "With God[c] are wisdom and might;
he has counsel and understanding. [English Standard Version]

In death's throes, what more can man do, where else can we find comfort, but in the hands of our God. I have found in the deep times, in the times of confusion and transition, when the old enemies of abandonment and helplessness are at my door, this stance is the best to take. As Job has declared, we are in the hands of a wise and understanding God.

We Will Arrive

Ezra 8:31 The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way. 32 So we arrived in Jerusalem, where we rested three days.

I woke up this morning to what is supposed to be a national holiday feeling overwhelmed with life. Life, with its cares and worries, apparently does not take days off. Our burdens are like a running debt that our "debtor" can call in on odd days. Even on public Hari Raya holidays.

Thoughts of upcoming trips, last night's text from a troubled sister, soon shifted to worries about retirement, and personal issues of parental abandonment. I thought up an array of 'what-ifs' and 'coulda-wouldas.' Funny and tragic at the same time.

The bed could have remained my cocoon, but it would also have become an incubator for hatching fear out of the daily dose of worry. What is the best antidote for an early morning onslaught? God's word that assures us that "[His] hand [is] on us, and he protect[s] us from enemies and bandits along the way. So we [will] arrive..."

The Journey

Ezra 8:21 There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.

The scene begins with Ezra embarking on his trip back to Jerusalem, after having been exiled for all or most of his life. He brought with him gifts of silver and gold that Artaxerxes had sent for the express purpose of buying oxen to be sacrificed to God...

Here we see Ezra risking life and limb to deliver the package to his God and his people. He has his household, his children, and loved ones in tow, together with the remainder of the remnant of Israel. Everyone is in high spirits, and the grave danger of their situation is buoyed by the anticipation of seeing the fulfillment of seventy years of prayer coming to pass. It is a sobering scene for those of us looking to embark on a similar journey home...

A 'Bright Future' for Our Sons

Ezra 6:7 Do not disturb the construction of the Temple of God. Let it be rebuilt on its original site, and do not hinder the governor of Judah and the elders of the Jews in their work. ... 12 May the God who has chosen the city of Jerusalem as the place to honor his name destroy any king or nation that violates this command and destroys this Temple.
“I, Darius, have issued this decree. Let it be obeyed with all diligence.”

What an amazing story of God's sovereignty over the mightiest kingdoms of the earth. As we follow the rebuilding of the temple, under command and protection of no less than the Persian Kings Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, I am brought back to thoughts of Daniel. Brought as a captive to Babylon most probably in his teens, he rose to serve in high government for seventy years. His proximity and favor with at least three of the four kings he served under must have been a determinant in the release of the Jews from captivity, the rebuilding of the walls and temple, and the inexplicable benevolence of kings Cyrus and Darius.

Daniel has been my hero and ideal since embarking on the task of home schooling my kids. He figures prominently in the Philosophy of Christian Education that we studied in the "early days". Yet today, in this passage, it struck me that Daniel paid the price of being a subject of foreign dominance, of being an alien, and exile for the rest of his life. Yes, he was an Israelite like no other in his allegiance, zeal and faith. But he never got to go home, build a family, see the land of his roots. He was a lone rock in a desolate land. Tragic? Glorious? It is sobering to me. Am I willing to release my own children to such a future? Can we look past the emotional pain of separation, the scorn of cultural convention and the derision of accusing voices in our mind?

Lord, your will is above ours, your thoughts are higher. Your understanding no one can fathom.

Friend or Foe?

1 Corinthians 3:2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, 3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?

The spirit of the world is competition, powered by jealousy, envy and pride. As habit would dictate, I self-assess. The mirror of the word is very stark and vivid. My spirituality and ability to discern God's truths are at stake here. And I lament the sinful nature in me.

And yet a question nags at me. I encounter and live in the midst of competition, and totally enjoy it when I watch the World Cup, Federer/Nadal, and mostly, my kids' college football matches. But I also contend with its burrs on my soul, and on my kids. Competition is the bed of pride, because it requires us to compare ourselves by ourselves, rather than by the accurate bar of God's standards. I think back to sibling rivalry, favoritism, early childhood honor rolls and school pressure... High School popularity contests and competing for the attention of "that cute guy at the party"... It goes on and on, and then... the cycle repeats itself in the next generation.

All these centuries, God spectated, nay, suffered to watch our futile efforts at upping our self-worth by belittling others. Woe is me... where is the line? Sadly, as long as we live in this world, we will be both perpetrator and victim. The former is something we can hopefully be made aware of and make efforts to correct. As for the latter, the Lord gave me immediate comfort in Psalm 28.

There is another level of oppressive competition, "those who speak friendly words to their neighbors while planning evil in their hearts(v.3b)." The term neighbor implies a common environment: someone living in your world, doing the same activities, most probably aiming for the same goals. IF we are unwary victims, we can count on the Lord to come to our defense and comfort.

The Decision of Nothingness

1 Corinthians 2
Paul’s Message of Wisdom
1 When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters,[f] I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan.[g] 2 For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. 4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. [NLT]

This entire passage of scripture (including the previous chapter on The Wisdom Of God) was always odd to me. When I first came to know the Lord, I had the idea in my mind that I was not small, I was not despised, foolish, weak. But, of course, God in His kindness, did not leave me wallowing in my ignorance. Over the years I've begun to realize what he meant.

Being in Penang, among people not my own, I used to get irked when people I meet find out I'm a Filipino. Having little or no foreknowledge of my country or race, they prejudge me according to their worldview. And isn't that what we ALL do? In our limited world, we all tend to judge ourselves larger than we actually are, and others are labeled, stereotyped and pigeonholed based on existing assumptions. To make matters worse, this is also the way we view ourselves in relation to God, his will for our lives and the role we play in his plan.

Paul, the master apostle, church-planter, author of half the New Testament, accomplished all this, not by relying on his Jew-of-Jews status, nor on his Roman citizenship, nor on his mentorship under Gamaliel. He "decided...in weakness—timid and trembling...[to] rely only on the power of the Holy Spirit".

After 25 years of walking this faith walk with the Lord, I may have come out on the other extreme, finding myself timid and weak, ill-fitted to the tasks I feel I am called to. And still this same passage, aimed to shoot down human pride, also comes to comfort and challenge the intimidation. For what is fear? Simply the misappropriation of faith. When we put faith in ourselves and our "foolish and powerless" efforts, we all but disqualify ourselves from the power of God.

Passion is Never Lost on a Nation

2 Chronicles 35: 24 So they lifted Josiah out of his chariot and placed him in another chariot. Then they brought him back to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried there in the royal cemetery. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him. 25 The prophet Jeremiah composed funeral songs for Josiah, and to this day choirs still sing these sad songs about his death. These songs of sorrow have become a tradition and are recorded in The Book of Laments.

A great lament for the last great reign of a godly king was written to Josiah by no less than the [weeping] prophet, Jeremiah. It was a prophetic lament, signifying not just the loss of a great leader, but the turning away of God's favor, thus commencing their captivity to Babylon.

The timeline would suggest that Daniel and his generation of excellent men were taken into captivity shortly after Josiah's reign. This would lead me to sumise that Josiah's passion for God may have rubbed off on them. Or on their parents. At the very least, the revival left a remnant that would later usher in the rebuilding of the temple and walls of Jerusalem.

The Vista of Generations

2 Chronicles 34:21 “Go to the Temple and speak to the Lord for me and for all the remnant of Israel and Judah. Inquire about the words written in the scroll that has been found. For the Lord’s great anger has been poured out on us because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of the Lord. We have not been doing everything this scroll says we must do.”

Realization comes and goes, but what matters is our response. As Josiah sought to do what pleases the Lord, cleaning up after his father's mess, he comes upon a greater awareness. The sins of his father go beyond the physical altars and broken down temple. He sees the breakdown of relationship, the years of disobedience, and the impending consequences of all this. Doom was up ahead.

Much like what we do at Victory Weekend, there is a necessity to stop and take stock of the sins of our fathers. Some would disagree, saying that each one is punished and accountable for his own sins. That would be true for saving faith, and personal guilt. The point for ancestral cleansing, I believe, is acknowledgment and humility. God is not bound by time as we are. And neither are the laws he set. The consequences and effects of sin tumble over time into the now. Jesus paid the penalty for all this, and he can in his sovereignty put a halt to all curses. But human responsibility and knowledge come into play when we are shown the greater picture. The greater the realization, the broader the width and breadth of redemption. The vista is very naturally taken to a whole other level.