Good Morning Friends,
A life of privilege has its pitfalls. And depending on government to solve the problems is a great disappointment. Perhaps you are plagued by some artificial anxieties related to what we are experiencing in the United States now…. Maybe some issues you are concerned about are really counterfeit concerns… fabricated frights. If you are anxious, whether the concerns are real or not, part of the problem might be you have not let God open your eyes to the deeper nature of the battle. Yes, there is oppression in the world and yes just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you but think with me for a moment and imagine that perhaps we can be fighting the wrong conflict. Maybe the real conquest is not what the world tells us. Maybe the challenge of courage is not external at all. Maybe the first thing is to have the right strategy from the inside. So, Will We Heed The Right Warning Signs Without Being Paralyzed By Fear?
Scripture: Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.”
Matthew 11:20-24 (NRSV)
In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem, but could not mount an attack against it. When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, and say to him, Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. Because Aram—with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah—has plotted evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and cut off Jerusalem and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it; therefore thus says the Lord God: It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. (Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, no longer a people.) The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all.
Isaiah 7:1-9 (NRSV)
Message: Just because the Lord loves us does not mean Jesus didn’t get frustrated and even angry at times at the lack of faith of even the towns in Galilee close to his home. In today’s Gospel text we find the Lord giving a signal of total exasperation in the form of a gasp of sorts from which we get the English translated word, “woe.” The text from Isaiah works well in counterpart to the issue. In the period more than 700 years before the time of Christ, the Judahite king Ahaz, installed as sole ruler of the southern kingdom had his own woe. He was faced with an invasion by his northern neighbors, and the northern tribes of Israel allied with Syria. And this was a horrible threat because the aggressors were planning to kill Ahaz and all his offspring and put in a puppet king. That action would extinguish the line of Davidic kings and void the prophecy of Nathan. However, just as God specializes in taking our crooked lines and turning them into a purposeful reality beautiful, God’s plan will not be thwarted. Sometimes even when we refuse to follow His way, He turns our rebellion into a good outcome, but generally an outcome we refuse to like. Isaiah told Ahaz to trust in God, but Ahaz, did not trust, he did not ask for a sign, and tried to solve the problem through unholy alliances by calling on Assyria to help him. Assyria trampled down the Syrians, utterly destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, dispersing all the people across their empire in such a way as to create the diaspora, and made Ahaz and Judah pay tribute. But God still carried His loving plan forward anyway. Because Ahaz and his young wife, Abijah daughter of Zechariah, soon welcomed a son into the world, a son who would become one of the great kings of Judah, and ancestor of Jesus, Hezekiah. These events delayed the ultimate fall of the southern kingdom until the Babylonians conquered what was left. The Babylonians allowed some of the Jews to remain in the land and took the others to Babylon. There the Jews were able to coalesce into a united people loyal to the true God, and after several decades when Babylon fell to Persia, they were able to return as a united people to their home. From this people came the hope of Mary and Joseph and ultimately Jesus. But the woe in a new form still persisted as it does today. Right now, the whole world is in the grip of a plague. It seems to many that there are no winners. It seems to me that it is time for us to imitate the early Christians and trust God for the victory. Political solutions treat the symptoms and rarely cure the disease. For the disease is the loss of faith in God, and disobedience to His commandment that we love one another with a unity of action. Friends we need wisdom, but we need Christ’s mercy more. We need to overcome our fears that can grip us with an immobilizing terror and keep us from succeeding in life. We need to see the signs and repent and love. The places we call our homes, where are hearts are, need to become the places we learn anew to worship God.
And So, there can be a stillness in the chaos that embolizes us with a fear that can steal our joy. But then God will be God and sometimes we have mercy bestowed on us. Fear can take our courage and leave us shaking uncontrollably for we all fear oppression and injustice. We all fear the unknown. To overcome the external oppression, one has to overcome the internal fear. It is not an easy task, for history is filled with examples of the oppressed becoming oppressors who never stopped fearing. Two thousand years ago everybody was looking toward Rome as the oppressors and they were. But perhaps the focus was a bit misplaced. You have heard it said that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and that is true for there is really nothing else for us to fear. And believe me, God does not want us to waste our lives needlessly fearing and you don’t want that either. But friends, in time you will find that only God’s perfect love castes out all fear. Then we learn that there is something about being in the presence of someone who is stronger than we are, that soothes our fears and gives us the courage to love and be loved. When we love, we are victors over our fear. Jesus used the word woe to describe what we are to fear, and I would have to say it must have been a lot like John the Baptist saying “repent.” Webster’s dictionary says that woe is “used to express grief, regret, or distress.” It denotes a condition to be dreaded, possibly signifying impending doom, condemnation and/or the wrath of God. Jesus uses the word seven times in scripture, perhaps indicating God’s judgment will be complete and perfectly just. Unfortunately, today people are still rejecting the warnings of Jesus and moreover the responsibilities he instructs us to obey. In our day, we still must forgive–and work against–the sins of our age. The message of Christ is the only one that makes sense. Unfortunately, we like those Hebrews before us seem to forget the miracle of God in our lives. We fear the wrong things when we need to love.
Pray we embrace the message of Jesus. Pray we repent. Pray we not let our anger get the best of us. Pray we not reject the opportunity to love. Pray we be quick to love and slow to judge. Pray therefor for those who are addicted to drugs. Pray for those who are wise in their own eyes. Pray for those who deal treacherously for personal gain. Pray for hypocrites. Pray for those who build by unrighteousness. Pray for those who seek the Day of the Lord not realizing what they are asking for. Pray we believe in the victory of Jesus. Pray we understand that Jesus spoke about woe to get us to change direction. Pray we stop galloping into sin. Pray we prepare for the coming of Christ. Pray we experience new mercies each day. Pray we turn around and giddy up in the right direction. Pray our hearts are no longer troubled by all the woe of the world. Pray we heed the warnings of Jesus to avoid being made fearful by the world. Pray we stand firm in our faith.
Pray we realize the spiritual nature of the battle. Pray we submit to God. Pray that we are cognizant of our emotions. Pray we experience the presence of God’s love on our lives. Pray we realize that when God is with us there is no reason to fear…when God is for us, no one can stand against us. Pray we remember our victories with God. Pray we not dwell on the fact we are smaller and weaker and outnumbered. Pray we realize that the Holy Spirit in us is greater than the evil in the world. Pray therefore we seek the Kingdom so that we be with God and actively seeking to love and be loved.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 