Oh, Lord our God, You answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings. Exalt the Lord our God and worship Him at His holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy! (Verses 8-9)
I received a disturbing email yesterday. It crushed my heart. Made my stomach turn suddenly sick. A friend who struggles with a failed marriage and the repercussions of devastating abandonment is in jail. I know pain put her there. Grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into hell--the same one from which she was rescued a decade and a half ago. Jesus found her then. Still loves her now. Jail just might be the safest place on earth for my precious friend right now. Just because God is an avenger of our wrongdoings doesn't mean He has given up on us. In fact, I think it could mean quite the opposite. Because a holy God wants holy children. And my friend might just find her sanctification in her incarceration. No place to run but to Him nowadays. She is captive to His calling.
I think about the very people this psalm recalls. Moses and Aaron. At Meribah, the children of Israel balked again at their journey with a planned mutiny against their leaders. This time, however, when God's glory descended upon the tent of meeting and He spoke with Moses, His instruction was for Moses to speak to the rock, not strike it as before. In the heat of the moment, however, and in his great irritation with the complaining and grumbling masses he was called to deliver through the wilderness and into the promised land, Moses castigated them: "Hey, you rebellious whiners, shall we bring you water from this rock?" Then Moses used his staff to strike the rock twice, in anger and disobedience. God, in His mercy, gave them abundant water. But He wasn't done with Moses and Aaron. "Really?" God charged them. "You would strike Me, Your Rock, when I told you to speak the water into existence? And you would take credit for the water that flowed forth as though your anger and my power co-exist?"
Moses calmed down. Looked at his own sin. Presumption. Pride. "You won't walk these people into the promised land, now, son," pronounced His God. "Only I, the holy God, can bring them provision. You didn't believe Me when I told you to speak to the rock. You have misrepresented Me to this entire nation. And this is how I will avenge your sin."
Moses got to see the Holy Land from a distance, but he didn't enter it. He was, however, taken up to his God to live there eternally. Will have, it seems, some place in the end of all things, too, as Jesus saw him on the Mount of Transfiguration. But on this earth, it mattered that He presumed upon a holy God. And God avenged that wrong. Made him pay a price for what he did.
What could be God's motive in such a thing? Why would He allow my friend to now sit in jail, probably onto prison, when He loves her? Sometimes we need rescue from ourselves. Perhaps her out of control behavior would have ultimately killed her or someone else. But I remember thinking about Jim Baker as he sat in prison for fraud. Realizing that God cared more about the evangelist's holiness than about his ministry. That the wrong perception of God Baker gave the people to whom he ministered made God sick in the same way the misrepresentation of Moses did. Humbled, Baker still ministers. God still loves him. Avenged his wrongs. Let him suffer the consequences of his choices. But never left him. Baker is His kid. So is my friend. So am I. That doesn't change. No matter what the rap sheet and the mug shot say.
Oh, I know some would argue that if these people were Christians in the first place they wouldn't do such heinous things. Be careful, though. David, Peter, Noah, Moses, Samson, Saul, Paul, Abraham and on and on they go. The imperfects of the Bible stories. Men and women of great destiny and purpose who screwed up. Big time. The earthly consequences were exacted, but they didn't lose their holy God. There was never a day when He wasn't working out their salvation. And they--with fear and trembling before God's need for justice.
Those of us who know Jesus can't just live any old way and get away with it. Not because He can't wait to pummel us, but because we are now members of the family of God. We carry His name into everything we do, all the time. How much would He love us if we were left to be hellions in the supermarket, disobeying His every command, continuing in our pride and rebellion? Very little, I'm afraid. Jesus must grow us up. Adult babies are not a joy to their parents or to the world. And God is more interested in our becoming like Him than He is about what people think of us. Jesus died for our screw ups. The ultimate payment--avenging--of our sins was paid in full by Him at Golgotha. So we don't bear the eternal weight of what we do here on Earth, but we often struggle with the consequences of our actions because God wants us purified, restored and healthy, happy kids of the kingdom. That is ultimately why my friend sits in jail. Because her Abba loves her too much to let her continue in her folly.
Enemy, don't laugh at me. I have fallen, but I will get up again. I sit in the shadow of trouble now, but the Lord will be a light for me. I sinned against the Lord, so He was angry with me, but He will defend my case in court. He will bring about what is right for me. Then He will bring me out into the light, and I will see Him set things right. Then my enemies will see this, and they will be ashamed, those who said to me, "Where is the Lord, your God?"
Micah 7: 8-10
I received a disturbing email yesterday. It crushed my heart. Made my stomach turn suddenly sick. A friend who struggles with a failed marriage and the repercussions of devastating abandonment is in jail. I know pain put her there. Grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into hell--the same one from which she was rescued a decade and a half ago. Jesus found her then. Still loves her now. Jail just might be the safest place on earth for my precious friend right now. Just because God is an avenger of our wrongdoings doesn't mean He has given up on us. In fact, I think it could mean quite the opposite. Because a holy God wants holy children. And my friend might just find her sanctification in her incarceration. No place to run but to Him nowadays. She is captive to His calling.
I think about the very people this psalm recalls. Moses and Aaron. At Meribah, the children of Israel balked again at their journey with a planned mutiny against their leaders. This time, however, when God's glory descended upon the tent of meeting and He spoke with Moses, His instruction was for Moses to speak to the rock, not strike it as before. In the heat of the moment, however, and in his great irritation with the complaining and grumbling masses he was called to deliver through the wilderness and into the promised land, Moses castigated them: "Hey, you rebellious whiners, shall we bring you water from this rock?" Then Moses used his staff to strike the rock twice, in anger and disobedience. God, in His mercy, gave them abundant water. But He wasn't done with Moses and Aaron. "Really?" God charged them. "You would strike Me, Your Rock, when I told you to speak the water into existence? And you would take credit for the water that flowed forth as though your anger and my power co-exist?"
Moses calmed down. Looked at his own sin. Presumption. Pride. "You won't walk these people into the promised land, now, son," pronounced His God. "Only I, the holy God, can bring them provision. You didn't believe Me when I told you to speak to the rock. You have misrepresented Me to this entire nation. And this is how I will avenge your sin."
Moses got to see the Holy Land from a distance, but he didn't enter it. He was, however, taken up to his God to live there eternally. Will have, it seems, some place in the end of all things, too, as Jesus saw him on the Mount of Transfiguration. But on this earth, it mattered that He presumed upon a holy God. And God avenged that wrong. Made him pay a price for what he did.
What could be God's motive in such a thing? Why would He allow my friend to now sit in jail, probably onto prison, when He loves her? Sometimes we need rescue from ourselves. Perhaps her out of control behavior would have ultimately killed her or someone else. But I remember thinking about Jim Baker as he sat in prison for fraud. Realizing that God cared more about the evangelist's holiness than about his ministry. That the wrong perception of God Baker gave the people to whom he ministered made God sick in the same way the misrepresentation of Moses did. Humbled, Baker still ministers. God still loves him. Avenged his wrongs. Let him suffer the consequences of his choices. But never left him. Baker is His kid. So is my friend. So am I. That doesn't change. No matter what the rap sheet and the mug shot say.
Oh, I know some would argue that if these people were Christians in the first place they wouldn't do such heinous things. Be careful, though. David, Peter, Noah, Moses, Samson, Saul, Paul, Abraham and on and on they go. The imperfects of the Bible stories. Men and women of great destiny and purpose who screwed up. Big time. The earthly consequences were exacted, but they didn't lose their holy God. There was never a day when He wasn't working out their salvation. And they--with fear and trembling before God's need for justice.
Those of us who know Jesus can't just live any old way and get away with it. Not because He can't wait to pummel us, but because we are now members of the family of God. We carry His name into everything we do, all the time. How much would He love us if we were left to be hellions in the supermarket, disobeying His every command, continuing in our pride and rebellion? Very little, I'm afraid. Jesus must grow us up. Adult babies are not a joy to their parents or to the world. And God is more interested in our becoming like Him than He is about what people think of us. Jesus died for our screw ups. The ultimate payment--avenging--of our sins was paid in full by Him at Golgotha. So we don't bear the eternal weight of what we do here on Earth, but we often struggle with the consequences of our actions because God wants us purified, restored and healthy, happy kids of the kingdom. That is ultimately why my friend sits in jail. Because her Abba loves her too much to let her continue in her folly.
Enemy, don't laugh at me. I have fallen, but I will get up again. I sit in the shadow of trouble now, but the Lord will be a light for me. I sinned against the Lord, so He was angry with me, but He will defend my case in court. He will bring about what is right for me. Then He will bring me out into the light, and I will see Him set things right. Then my enemies will see this, and they will be ashamed, those who said to me, "Where is the Lord, your God?"
Micah 7: 8-10
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