Self-made Weaklings

“For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.” (Pr 7:26 AV)

The ‘her’ here is the adulterous or strange woman.  The ‘she’ is the woman who is aggressively making collateral damage from her indiscretions.  This woman of the bible stands on the street corner, enticing young men to come in unto her.  Sometimes, she is married.  Other times, she is not.  This strange woman uses her words and wares to seduce the undisciplined and the impulsive.  She takes advantage of the weakness of men to her own profit of pleasure.  The results are many.  We want to focus on one, and only one, this morning.  Many strong men have been slain by her.  This does not necessarily mean directly slain by her.  In a moment of weakness, a strong man becoming weak, is often brought down to a permanent place of weakness.  As the Spirit directed my meditation this morning, I could not help by make a correlation between the sad state of leadership in our government, communities, homes, and churches because the men of these institutions have succumbed to the strange woman.

But how are we seduced by the strange woman?  We have never cheated on our spouses.  We have never ever been involved in premarital intimacy.  We have never, ever, bought or looked at pornographic magazines.  We don’t go to the movies.  How is it the strange woman has made me weak?  Our street corners have been replaced by our TVs and computers.  Our flirtatious conversation has been replaced by private chat rooms.  The enticing of the strange woman has been replaced by advertisements on the cover of magazines, billboards, and commercials.  I will give you one glaring example.  I have read the half-time show of the Super Bowl was highly sexualized.  With two female singers barely dressed, pole dancing as someone in the adult entertainment industry would do, and touching them selves in a way that should never be done in private or public.  The outrage is understandable.  The outrage is predictable.  But as one writer observed, the outrage is meaningless as long as 100 million viewers still tune in.  What has this done?  This has made mice out of men.  We melt at the sight of a strange woman whether in the flesh or on the screen.  We cannot say no.  No wonder there is a vacuum of effective leadership.  We cannot be disciplined enough to say no to the basest of all temptations, how can we lead our nation, community, home or church?

Like Sampson of old, we are enticed by a Delilah.  We get weak-kneed.  We cannot look a strange woman in the face and deal with her as a simple human soul.  She is a temptress who beguiles us into giving up the secret to our strength.  It is a shame too man of us men have shrunk to the temptation of the strange woman.  And, she knows it!  Have you ever noticed how many entertainment sources now feature strong willed woman who are the heroes while the defeated villain is a man?  It is even getting so bad that role models of young ladies today are older ladies who make a living flaunting their physic and making an open show of their wares.  It is blatant.  They call it empowering.  It is not.  It is debasing.  For both the women and the men.  Men, if we are to be the leaders of today, we need to learn how to say ‘no’ to the strange woman.  We need to not even go there!  We need to celebrate our ladies who have learned their role according to the word of God and hold them up as role models.  No one likes to be tickled.  We lose our strength.  This is far more serious and can lead to permanent loss of strength.  Let us say ‘no’ for the sake of our nation, communities, homes, and churches.  But most of all, for the glory of God and His pleasure.

Stay on the Mount

“And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.” (Ex 24:14 AV)

Aaron, Hur, and two others accompanied Moses and Joshua to the foot of Mount Sinai.  It was there they saw the glory of God in a way the nation could not.  When Moses and Joshua ascended the mountain for the tables of stone, Aaron and Hur were to remain at the foot of the mount, judging the people as they came to have their cases heard.  Aaron and Hur were not given relief to be among the people in the camp on a regular basis.  I am sure they were allowed to go back home at night.  But their only responsibility was to hear the cases brought before them at the foot of the mount as Moses was receiving the written law of God from the very finger of God.  What happened?  Aaron decided to descend to the people and be among them.  The result?  A golden calf.  There is a danger when the leadership of God’s people try to be among the people on their terms and with their lifestyle.  The leader is to live above the people and set the example.  He is not to see how much like the people he can be so as to win their approval.

The custom today is for the leadership to be cool and accepted among God’s people. When did we decide this?  The Old Testament prophet and the New Testament Apostle was not out for a popularity contest.  They didn’t condescend to men of low estate by being like them.  When Paul says he was all things to all men, he didn’t mean he would conform to the values of all men so as to gain the emotional loyalty.  Paul tells Timothy to be an ensample.  He was to model true Christian behavior.  Not be being like those whom he led.  Rather, by living in Christlikeness so as to be an example for others to attain.  What is fascinating about the discourse between Moses and Aaron is how much a weak leader will pass the buck to the people whom he is supposed to lead.  Adam did this with Eve.  Aaron did this with the people he led.  When the leadership condescends to those whom he leads by being as much like them as he can, he is allowing the people to lead him rather than he leading the people.

The skill and art of leadership is being lost.  We have something that is intended to lift mankind up and turned it around so that both mankind and leadership is brought lower.  If a leader needs to be liked or affirmed, then he is no leader.  If he is trying to be popular and lead for compliments, then he is no leader.  If a leader cannot stand in front of the people and lead, rather than be among them and follow, then he is not qualified to lead.  Aaron made a tactical error by not remaining in the calling of which he was called.  It cost the people of God dearly.  It cost them some lives.  It cost them loss of wealth.  It cost them bitter water.  It cost the people of God to demand their leadership be just like them.  Stay on that mountain and judge the people. Love them from the position of leadership.  Love them from the position of being and example.  Love them and lead them at the same time.  Stay on the mountain and don’t apologize for it.  If you are accused of being to proud, ignore it.  You cannot lead if you are following.

The Law is our Friend

“And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.” (Ex 20:20 AV)

This statement is in the context of the giving of the law on the top of Mount Sinai.  The people are told not to fear the LORD.  Rather, He has come in such a dramatic fashion that they might respect Him and understand the law is given for their proving.  The righteousness and holiness of the law is given that Israel might mature.  That is the understanding of the proving here.  Like metal is forged and folded, the nation of Israel will be perfected by means of the law.  This is a good thing.  Law is not a bad thing.  Laws are how life works.  The more we learn and apply, the more successful we will be in life.  The more we learn to conform to law, the more blessed life will be.  This is the manner in which the LORD has set up creation.  What is more is the nature of the law requires line upon line, precept upon precept.  It builds on itself.  From simple law to more complex law, the basics of the law are the structure of all principles upon which creation functions.  For the LORD to make the statement above serves to validate the motive behind the law.  It is to prove those who wish to learn and apply it.  Not for the purpose of a tyrannical God to impose His will on His subjects.

I love baseball.  I used to play in my very early years, but never understood the finer points of defense.  Try as I may, I never got the intricacies of where the ball was supposed to be thrown in every situation.  My coaches tried to teach me.  We had drill after drill.  It didn’t matter if I was infield or outfield, invariably there would come a situation that caused me confusion and I threw it to the wrong person.  The cut off man was either the shortstop of second basemen.  That is, unless a runner was going to first and, blah, blah, blah.  I remember the last game I ever played.  It was for a church softball league.  I had thrown the ball to the wrong cut-off man and got an ear full when I returned to the dugout.  Those rules existed for a reason.  We wanted to win the game because winning the game felt a whole lot better than losing.  These rules did not exist to make my life miserable.  They did not exist to ferret out those who could not play from those who could.  These rules did not exist to humiliate.  These rules were designed to give uniformity to the game and help each individual grow in their understanding and skill set regarding the game.  We had drill after drill.  Scenario after scenario.  Practice, practice, practice.  Simple built on more complex.  There was playing catch wherein we learned how to throw effectively.  NO SIDEARM ALLOWED!  We learned how to field the ball.  Mitt in front of the face watching the ball in.  Mitt on the ground to field a ground ball.  We did these drills over and over.  These ‘laws’ were not given to make the coach look like a mean and angry person.  They were given that we might enjoy the game to our fullest potential.

The same is true of the law of God’s word.  God did not give the law on Mount Sinai so that Israel would tremble at the very thought of the Lawgiver.  Sure, they, and we, are to fear the LORD for that is the beginning of wisdom.  Sure, we are to fear what the LORD may do if we disobey the law.  But that is not the primary purpose of the law.  It was given so that we might grow up!  It was given so that we might be all God designed us to be.  It was given that we might experience maximum blessings while living by it.  The law is holy, just, and good.  Just like Paul tells us in Romans chapter seven.  The law was given be a benevolent and loving God that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

Life Skills Lacking

“And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Ex 16:3 AV)

We have to be careful here.  If we are not diligent to remember the context, we can be a bit harsh with the people.  We must remember they were enslaved for 430 years.  That is a long time.  According to their words above, the Egyptians provided stew (flesh pots) and bread for them on a daily basis.  Their captors provided food, clothing, water, and shelter.  Meager, for sure.  But provided they were.  If so, ten generations had been taken care of by the state.  Over that time, no doubt, they lost the ability to be self-sufficient.  They would not have known how to plant and harvest crops.  They would have lost the ability to cook more than the necessary.  They would have lost the ability to mend cloths, manage a household, or basic food storage.  When a people are raised by a nanny-state, they lose their ability to care for themselves.  This is what was happening here.  They complained about water.  They complained about food.  God provided both.  The Bible also tells us the LORD saw to it that even the soles of their shoes never wore out.  What they didn’t get was the LORD’s plan to mature them into a nation that could survive without the need to depend on pagan nations.  This maturity process took forty years of trials and tribulations.  Let us remember their murmuring was not because of rebellion, per se.  Rather, it was a lack of skills and maturity that brought it on.

One of our rights of passage was to go off for a summer and work at camp.  Before we got there, my father had invested in us many experiences which would help us to survive.  There were many camping trips requiring we learn how to cook over an open fire.  There were tons of patches that needed sewing and socks that needed darning.  There were first aid skills which we learned, knots that were mastered, and wildlife to study.  If I ever found myself in a survival situation, I am confident as long as I was prepared, this scout could survive.  What this required were sleepless nights of hunger because we didn’t master the skills of starting a fire without matches, or worse, with wet wood.  There would be times of duress where we thought we were lost until we were able to navigate by compass and map.  There were times we were cold because we failed to insulate our tent properly.  There were injuries that didn’t heal as fast as they should have because we didn’t yet know how to treat certain ailments.  I distinctly remember my first and only case of poison ivy.  I remember a few bee stings that hurt far more than they were meant to.  We learned, by experience, to tend to things as best we could.  We learned so that we could be independent.

Before we become overly critical of Israel in their infant years as a nation, let us remember they spent for centuries being taken care of.  Now, they are thrust in the situation of complete independence.  This is why the LORD had such mercy and tenderness on them.  Although both Moses and the LORD lost patience with them, they came around to show compassion.  They remembered the weakness of the people and understood that standing on their own would take time and faith.  God would always see to their needs.  But God is not a nanny here.  He expects His children to learn a little self-sufficiency.  He expects them to gather their own manna and seethe their own quail.  He may provide the means.  But they provided the method.  A hard lesson to learn, but one that is necessary.  This is important to remember when we care for those who are weaker than we are.  Our goal is the help them transition from student to teacher.  From the mentored to the mentoring.  This means we must help them much in the beginning.  Patience and compassion are the keys.

Only Interested in Total Victory

“And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.” (Ex 14:13 AV)

The people of God were understandably fearful.  They had just left Egypt and Moses led them to a place that appeared to be a trap.  They had the Red Sea to their east and the Egyptian army to their west.  They were pinned in.  The people expressed to Moses this is what they feared.  They feared being consumed by the Egyptian army in the wilderness.  They wanted to turn and go back, serving the Egyptians in severe bondage, rather than risk death in the wilderness.  I can understand their anxiety.  But God had a plan all along.  Even though defeat looked like a real possibility, God intended more than partial victory.  He intended full and complete victory.  No victory is worth it unless it is complete and total victory.

For an enemy to cease being and enemy, he must be completely defeated.  In watching several documentaries on World War II, one is struck by the resolve of the Japanese people to fight.  It was in their culture to fight, regardless of the outcome.  When it was clear the United States was gaining the advantage and, over time, would win the war, this did not stop their fighting.  Years later, somewhere upwards of thirty years later, there were still Japanese soldiers hold up in bunkers defending islands that were surrendered decades ago.  Their resolve to fight, win or lose, gave way to the doctrine of the kamikaze.  The pilot whose goal was to smash is bomb laden plane into an Allied ship, causing maximum destruction.  When Japan lost the islands around them, they were preparing to enlist every able bodies adult, male of female, to die for their nation.  A six-million-person army would have been the first defense against an Allied invasion.  The United States was well aware of this culture of war and imperialism.  We knew the only way to hand Japan was to totally defeat them.  Unconditional surrender was the only solution.  This required the first and only deployment of nuclear weapons the world would ever know.  The loss of life was incalculable.  It was extremely unfortunate it took a massive loss of life to end a war, but if it dragged on, it meant the loss of life to Allied forces into the millions.  If Japan was not totally defeated, they would take the time and rise again.

The LORD is not interested in giving us partial victories.  These victories over the world, the devil, and the flesh need to be complete so the enemy cannot rise again.  This means we are placed in positions of trust and risk.  This means we are forced to face our enemies and allow the LORD to fight for us.  This means we take no prisoners.  This means the desire for the sin or temptation will never be a temptation again.  This means that whatever we held dear that caused us to fall is rooted out and removed.  No doubt fear raised in the hearts of those looking back at the advancing Egyptian armies.  It looked like they were doomed.  God put them in that stressful situation for the express purpose of destroying and enemy so thoroughly, there would be no possibility he would rise again.  Sure, it meant fear.  Sure, it meant uncertainty.  Sure, it may have even raised some unrealistic solutions and irrational desires.  Total victory is not without cost and stress.  But Total victory is what the LORD is after.  He is not after a truce.  He is not satisfied with the 38^th parallel.  He is not after a treaty.  He is after total and unconditional surrender.  This, and only this, is the victory guaranteed to the child of God!

Safe Till Sunrise!

“And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.” (Ex 12:22 AV)

To understand the full picture here, we need to realize the results of the requirement of blood upon the mantle and side posts of the door.  The blood was the blood from their sacrificial lamb.  Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.  The instrument used was the hyssop branch.  The hyssop tree is similar to a pine tree.  The needles do not run along the length of the branch.  Rather, they are a ball at the end of the crocked branch.  Sort of like a toilet bowl brush.  They were not told to brush the blood on.  Rather, they were told to strike the blood-soaked branch.  The book of Isaiah tells us He was stricken for our iniquities.  One has to use his imagination here.  If the bowl of blood was on the ground.  Striking the mantle would have left a trail of blood from the bottom to the top.  Striking the side posts would have caused the blood to splatter towards the center of the door.  Thus, the shape created by striking, rather than brushing would have resulted in a blood soaked cross!  Now comes the great part.  They were told to dwell behind the blood-cross until the morning.  Even though the angel of death passed over at midnight, and death was commenced and concluded shortly after that, they were told to remain behind that cross until the morning!  When the Son rises from the east, or redemption draweth nigh!

It didn’t take much for them to realize the blood-cross worked.  Once the clock struck midnight and the wailing of the Egyptians commenced, all the Hebrews had to do was to take a role call.  As long as the firstborn was still alive, God proved His faithfulness.  One can imagine the mixed emotions they must have felt.  Sure, a bit of nervousness started the evening.  But as minutes turned to hours and the firstborn was still alive, it must have turned to joy.  God was true!  God was faithful!  Their safety was guaranteed by a Cross at the door.  They were kept safe until the morning broke.  No threat of death.  God saw them through the night.  Sight was not sufficient.  They could not see the events outside their four walls.  They had to take by faith the LORD would protect the firstborn of their cattle.  If they heard pounding at the door of Egyptians who choose not to trust, they could not open.  No matter how the world was reacting to the judgment of God, that blood-cross sealed them from all harm.  This is how the saint should live his life in the generation.

The morning is coming.  Christ, the Morning Star, will arise in our hearts.  He will return for His bride.  Even if we are not the generation which is caught up in the air, our departure from this earth is our morning.  The Savior has kept us from death by the blood of His cross.  The world cannot remove it.  They cannot take it away.  The Cross is sufficient to carry us through the night of doubt, fear, anxiety, persecutions, temptations, and trials.  The Cross is the shadow upon which we hide behind.  The Cross is the power of the guiding Master to keep His own and bring them home.  The Cross is the beginning of a journey that may start out a bit dark, but it has a morning that will dawn.  A new day which had no night will be our home.  Stay behind that Cross!  Don’t look around it.  Don’t get your mind and eyes off the reality of what that Cross provides.  No matter how much the wicked wail by reason of the circumstances of rejection, it doesn’t change the fact we are covered by the Cross.  It cannot be removed.  It is done and it is finished.  Stay there till morning!  Only behind the blood-soaked Cross is there peace and joy.  Stay there until morning!

Perceptive Precautions Protect the Prudent

“Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.” (Pr 1:17 AV)

This may seem like an odd proverb, but actually, there is a bit of wisdom here.  The context is the efforts of the wicked to be successful.  Those that lay a trap are soon taken themselves.  Then there is this statement. Which, if one understands hunting birds, will quickly see the wisdom.  There is the futility of the obvious fowler.  But there is also the success of the foul.  Being a turkey hunter, I know how foolish it is to lay decoys in the sight of the gobbler I wish to add to my freezer.  The see everything far better than humans.  They see you in the dark.  They see you in the light.  Anything that is out of the ordinary, they will notice.  To successfully tag a gobbler, one must set up well out of the eyesight, preferably before daybreak. For the hunter to out smart their prey, they must be more cunning than the prey’s ability to detect it.  There is another way we can think about this.  We can think about this from the perspective of the prey.

The turkeys that fall to the shot of the hunter are, more than not, the less mature and less experienced.  They have not spent their time in the woods with the reality that threats abound.  They have spent little time running from coyotes.  They haven’t had to defend their nests from fox or possum.  For at least two years, they were relatively free from serious challenge to their lives.  But experience will teach them how to survive.  If they are wary enough to watch and learn.  One such incident reminds me of this learning experience.   I was hunting with my son and we had set up on a crossroads of dirt ATV roads.  We were up on a knoll where all these trails intersected.  We were facing each other.  I had called and called.  To which, I had gotten responses.  Then, all of a sudden, quiet.  So, I used soft feeding calls.  Two male turkeys had come up behind me and we silent.  Remaining still and not making a noise, I never knew they were there.  Less then ten feet from me, they were scoping out the setup.  Zack saw it all, but he couldn’t signal me.  These wary birds took the time to investigate before they jumped right in.  They overcame their natural and strong drive to procreated in favor of life.

The point is, for us to be less of a victim requires wisdom.  The proverb is written to those who make crime a life.  Most people are cautious; therefore, crime doesn’t pay.  That is the point of the proverb.  But we can look at it from the perspective of the victim.  More times than not, we open ourselves up to being the victim.  Sometimes, it cannot be helped.  This is not the case all of the time.  Being in the wrong place when we didn’t have to be; not taking precautions when we knew we were at risk; participating in behavior that would open ourselves up to be victimized.  All play a part in being another statistic.  The LORD has given us an entire book that helps to minimize the consequences of other men’s sins.  If we heed the wisdom found in the word of God, maybe we will be a little less victimize by those who take advantage.