Grateful For Definition

“The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant [places]; yea, I have a goodly heritage.” (Ps 16:6 AV)

This verse can be taken several ways.  David could be speaking if his physical inheritance in the tribe of Judah.  This would certainly apply.  He could be referencing his relationship to his forefathers in the lineage of both being king and being in the lineage of the Messiah.  David may also mean that his lines in pleasant places and goodly heritage are the life God has chosen for him.  Particularly, to serve as king if Israel.  For us, the application can also be some of the above.  Add to those things our relationship to God by the blood of Christ and we can agree with David that God has, by His grace, given us pleasant places and a goodly heritage.

Do we thank the LORD for the lines?  The lines are the boundaries God puts in place to keep us in our place.  They are the purpose for which we exist.  Those lines give us definition.  Those lines give us plans for the future.  They guide us in the decisions we make.  The O.T. Hebrews were not allowed to blur those lines.  In whatever tribe you were born, that was where you remained.  For the male Hebrew, he could not marry outside his tribe for gaining another tribe’s territory.  For example, a man from Judah could not marry the daughter and only child of someone from Simeon.  The lines are the assignment of God for the lives of those who found themselves within.  Lines are good.  Lines save time in the sense there is no guesswork where one belongs.  Constraints are often seen as a bad thing.  Yet, for those wandering through life wondering where to go, lines are wonderful.  The heritage is the trail which one’s forefathers left and the trail one must continue.  A heritage gives explanation and reaffirms one’s purpose and direction.

Note in particular how David refers to the lines and heritage.  They are pleasant and goodly.  Now, one might think, “Well, of course they are.  He is the king of a nation.  He is the apple of God’s eye.  He has many wives.  He has wealth.  He has it good.”   Perhaps all of that was true.  But as a saint of God, we can say no less.  We are forgiven.  We are assured of a place in heaven.  We have the Creator of all things as our loving Father.  We have assurance and affirmation that can come only from God.  Where know where we have been.  We know where we are going.  We have a completed Bible.  The Bible is the voice of God to man.  We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  We have so much.  God also created us for a purpose.  There is a plan for our lives.  There is a reason for our existence.  God can and does use us.  I am sure there were days that David wished he was back in the fields tending to the sheep.  I am sure there were days David wished his biggest battle was a lion or bear.  I am sure there were those times when his sons caused much grief.  With the blessings of life came also hard times.  David lost four children before he died.  David lost a wife only a few short years after he married her.  David’s own son rebelled and sought to kill him.  David’s lines and heritage were not without hard days, too.  But he was very grateful.  We can do no less.

Blind To Blessings

“And he said, Peace [be] to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them.” (Ge 43:23 AV)

Joseph's brethren returned to Egypt to buy more corn.  They mentioned that when they returned home the first time; they realized their money remained in their sacks.  So, they brought double the second time.  Joseph’s answer to their concern was the God of Jacob had blessed them.  Joseph’s brothers were so fraught with guilt over selling Joseph into slavery that they could not see when the LORD was being kind to them.  The kindness of God was seen with suspicion.  I can empathize with these men.  Sometimes we see the events of our lives solely through the lens of our failures.  We have tunnel vision and doubt God’s willingness to forgive.  Every event, whether good or bad, is seen through the context of chastening.  We think we have committed the unforgiveable sin and have put ourselves in a position where God’s blessings will never come.  That is truly a sad place to be.

Don’t get me wrong.  These eleven men were right to be concerned.  They didn’t know the context of how this came to pass.  They remembered paying the price for the corn.  The servants of Joseph returned their money in their sacks.  Perhaps they simply did not understand the process.  Maybe they were supposed to go to the second window after picking up their load and pay the price.  So, the money was returned with the intent for them to pay somewhere else.  Who knows?  Whatever they were thinking, they could not think it was a blessing from God.  They immediately saw it as God’s judgment.  They brought back twice as much the second time.  They brought money to pay for the first purchase, plus money for the second.  That was the right thing to do.  If they could not account for why their money was found in their sacks, it was prudent to assume they still owed the money.  What they failed to do is to entertain that the error wasn’t an error.  They failed to entertain that God might have blessed them.  It was still right to try to return the money.  No one told them it was a gift from God.  Where they failed is where we fail.  It is right to try to make things right.  But the conscience will not allow us to entertain that perhaps the LORD was good to us.

Now, it would not have been right for these eleven to presume upon God’s grace.  To assume God had blessed them and not bring the first price back would not have been ethical.  In other words, there needs to be a balance.  They needed to attempt to repay, but they should have also entertained the possibility of God’s grace.  Forgiveness was a tough thing for these eleven to accept.  When Jacob died, even though Joseph repeatedly told them they were forgiven, were terrified thinking Joseph would exact his revenge.  They thought the only reason Joseph was kind to them was because Jacob was still alive.  Accepting the grace and forgiveness of God is a hard thing.  Our guilty conscience will not allow it.  But we must.  Unless we do, we will miss God’s blessings along life’s journey.  The eleven never truly emotionally reconciled with Joseph.  They condemned themselves greater than God, Jacob, or Joseph ever could have.  That is really too bad.  One wonders how many blessings from God we have missed because we simply cannot come to where we accept God’s forgiveness and mercy.

Lonely Satisfaction

“The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man [shall be satisfied] from himself.” (Pr 14:14 AV)

One writer makes the connection of separation.  Because of the colon, he sees that the good man will not be satisfied with the company or works of the backslider.  Rather, he will do good and because he does good and is separated from those who are not doing good, he will be satisfied with the company of one.  The writer takes from the two words, “from himself’, not to mean his alone is the source of all satisfaction.  That would be contrary to the word of God.  God alone is the source of our satisfaction.  Rather, what he suggests is that the good man, being alone, is satisfied because he is not suffering the consequences of keeping company with the backslider.  Loneliness can be a good thing.  Loneliness can be hard to deal with.  But sometimes, there is a protection there.

As a child, I was a loner.  In some ways, I still am.  The need to be affirmed by people is not high on my list of needs.  Support and comfort are not my driving force.  Sometimes, that is not a good thing.  Other times, it was an advantage.  Growing up, I only had a few close friends.  Never the popular type or the life of the party, my friend and I would find our own place and things to do.  There was never any more than three of us at any time.  We wouldn’t get in a lot of trouble, and the trouble we did get into was rather innocuous.  About the worst thing I think we ever did was damn up a storm sewer flow-way and backed up a creek into a neighborhood.  We were too young to know that would happen, so I plead the fifth.  I can count on one hand the number of close friends I had in my youth.  Not too many of them.  However, fifty years later, we still remember one another.  One such friend of mine I still keep in contact with.  The pressure to conform to a crowd was non-existent.  We had our adventures and the populace of grade school and middle school kids pretty much left us alone.  When High School rolled around, while the rest of the class was out partying on Friday and Saturday nights, we would work a job or strike out on another adventure.  Fishing was one of those adventures.  Being in a small group or alone kept us far from serious trouble.  Never once did smoking or drinking even remotely become a thing with us.  Nor did immorality.  Being a group of two or three kept us from a lot of heartache along the way.

I believe the writers that explained this proverb as such are correct.  This proverb is a bit of advice regarding peer pressure and friends.  If we don’t have inner character, we have nothing.  If that character forces us to be alone, then so be it.  If the saint cannot be satisfied with Christlikeness in the soul more so than companionship, he or she is going to suffer unfortunate and avoidable consequences.  It is better to live with yourself alone knowing that righteousness is the goal than having many friends who do not wish to love God.  That is Solomon’s advice to his children.  Learn to live alone.  If you cannot live alone, then you cannot live for Christ.  There are times when, as a child of God, there will be no one in your corner.  That is ok.  Stand your ground and find satisfaction that you can look yourself in the mirror and not grimace from what you see.  That is Solomon’s advice.  Learn to live with Self when Self is doing the right thing.  Even if it means you live alone.

Hypotheticals Are Not Certainties

“And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that [were] round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.” (Ge 35:5 AV)

The thing Jacob feared the most never came to pass.  Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, was sleeping with a Gentile man out of wed-lock.  When the man’s father came to speak with Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, met him.  They convinced Shechem and his son to circumcise all the males among them.  From head of household down to servant, every man was circumcised under the guise the two nations would unite.  The third day after surgery, as the men were too sore to stand, Simeon and Levi entered the city and killed them all.  They took what was left.  Correctly stated, the two men accused Shechem and his son of treating their sister like a harlot.  Jacob was not a happy person.  He feared the allies of these men would ally themselves to destroy their little family.  Yet, the above verse tells us that wherever Jacob went, those whom they met were struck with the fear of God.  Simeon and Levi did the right thing.  Because they did, all other nations feared them.  God struck Jacob’s potential enemies with the fear of God.  The thing Jacob feared never came to pass.

We have all had these moments.  Fear became the major factor in a decision and it cost us something.  Hypotheticals became more important that certainties.  What might happen was of more concern that what we knew would happen.  Without risk, there is little reward.  Regret is sown in the garden of fear.  I cannot begin to tell you how many people I have ministered to who, going through a midlife crisis, wished they had made different choices.  Failure to trust the LORD or strike out at opportunity left them is doubt many years later.  In fact, we all live with this.  We all struggle with what might have been.  We never fully trust the LORD and because we do not, we fail to see the LORD work in ways that He might have otherwise.

Fear cannot dictate what is right or wrong.  Fear cannot be the deciding factor to determine absolutes.  Fear is a good thing.  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.  But fear, being the sole determining factor in our decisions, is going to lead us down a path of ineffectiveness and fruitlessness.  Jacob had a promise.  He had a promise that he never fully trusted.  As we mentioned yesterday, he manipulated a birthright when God had promised it to him.  He manipulated a family and household when God would have blessed him, anyway.  Now, he doesn’t trust God’s promises and refuses to defend his daughter.  When his sons do, they get a rebuke.  Jacob is a man who tries as best he can, but he can not seem to fully trust the LORD.  God uses him anyway.  God blesses him anyway.  Praise the LORD.  One wonders what Jacob would have missed out on if he had allowed God to work and did the right thing when it counted.

He Is So Patient

“And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee:” (Ge 32:9 AV)

“And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.” (Ge 32:31 AV)

“And he erected there an altar, and called it Elelohe-Israel.” (Ge 33:20 AV)

Praise God for His wonderful patience with those of weak hearts.  Latent fears have a way of erasing the mind of God’s promises.  God told Jacob to return to Isaac.  When he did, the LORD would deal well with him.  The promises given to Abraham and Isaac would fall upon him.  The boys are returning to their father in his old age, preparing to mourn his eventual death.  The last time Jacob saw or heard anything of Esau, Esau swore an oath to kill Jacob upon their father’s death.  As Jacob returned, he showered Esau with gifts.  He devised a defense strategy in case Esau was still bent on killing him.  Then Jacob wrestled with God for an entire night.  In earnest prayer, he laid before God the promises made to him and would not let God go until those promises were once more affirmed.  This wrestling in prayer cost Jacob a healthy hip.  God affirmed His promises, renamed Jacob to Israel, and assured him all would be well.  It wasn’t until the promise came to pass that Jacob finally believed God.  He was so overwhelmed by the LORD’s faithfulness that he built an altar and named it Elelohe-Israel.  That means the mighty God of Israel.  Jacob had a life-changing experience.  He experienced the faithfulness of God in the midst of doubt and fear.  God did not abandon him because of his fear.  He patiently affirmed His love and care for Jacob.

In one sense, Jacob brought this on himself.  He did not have the patience to allow time for God to work.  He manipulated the birthright of Esau; he manipulated the sheep of Laban, and now he is trying to manipulate a perceived threat.  Jacob’s pattern was to get ahead of God and finagle God’s blessing when there really was no need.  If he had simply waited for the LORD to do as He wanted to do, those things would have worked out, anyway.  The LORD would have worked it out in ways beyond Jacob’s imagination.  Jacob, because of his manipulation, made enemies of his brother, Esau, and father-in-law, Laban.  Now that he is faced with the reality of an hypothetical adversary with a superior force, and no way to manipulate it, he is forced to trust God.  Completely trust God.  Without any means to handle it on his own.  This was new for Jacob.  Yet, the LORD had patience with him.  He was learning.  These lessons come with difficulties.  These lessons are hard to learn.  Jacob learned what he should have learned twenty-plus years ago.  He learned that God would take care of him better than he could take care of himself.  Jacob never completely learned this lesson, by the way.  When his daughter was taken advantage of, it was his sons, Levi and Simeon, who exacted justice.  Jacob was too afraid to.  Yet God still loved and cared for Jacob in spite of his less than perfect faith.

The life of Jacob gives us hope.  All too often, we believe the faith of Abraham is required for God to bless.  We think we have to be perfect in all things before God will be faithful.  That is not so.  Our loving Father nurtures us no different from we do our own children.  We often overlook their immaturity.  We help them in spite of their flaws.  We put up with a lot in the process of making them into the adults God wants them to be.  Or at the very least, we set them on the path for God to take them to where He wants them to be.  God is no different.  I read this passage this morning with a heart of deep gratitude.  Perhaps I am a bit too much like Jacob.  The LORD knows how many times I wrestled with Him, even though He had promised and proved Himself faithful.  The LORD knows how many times fear got the better of me when the LORD had it in His hand all along.  God is so good!  Isn’t He?  He is so very patient with us.  He puts up with our fears and anxieties without taking offense.  Instead, as a patient Father would do, He affirms our worth to Him and His devotion to our welfare.  Jacob’s story brings a smile to my soul.  It even brings a chuckle to my heart.  I can see myself doing the same.  Fussing over circumstances, even though God has promised, all will be well.  Rather than getting frustrated with me, He assures me time and again that He has our six!

OK For Thee But Not For Me

“And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:” (Ge 26:2 AV)

These words were spoken to Isaac during a time of famine.  His father went into Egypt for the same reason.  Yet, his father believed God and did not stay there.  It appears Isaac did not have that same resolve.  At least not until the LORD commanded him to leave Egypt once the famine had passed.  The LORD instructed Isaac to seek relief in the land of the Philistines rather than to vacate to Egypt.  Why?  If Abraham did so, as mentioned in verse one, why wouldn’t Isaac also do the same?  Egypt had changed.  That is why.  Egypt was on its way to becoming the world power of the age.  They were growing and evolving into a mighty nation that had all that a nation could have.  Their wealth and industry were second to none.  The world’s system was well entrenched there and Egypt was on its way up.  What was ok far Abraham was not ok for Isaac.  What was ok for our parents may not be ok for us.  What is ok for us may not be ok for our children.  Things change, but the application of wisdom does not.

It was ok for our parents to go to most restaurants.  However, because restaurants are more and more about serving alcohol, we have to be a bit more discerning.  It was ok to go to the state fair.  However, because of trouble that seems to be more common, it may not be a wise thing nowadays.  It was ok for me to ride my bicycle all over the city.  However, I couldn’t let my children out of our fenced-in yard.  It was permissible to serve as a chaplain at a hospital in my younger years of ministry.  However, with the transgender issue and the medical industry supporting the homosexual lifestyle, it had not become impossible.  Things change.  What we cannot do is lament the liberty our parents had, which we not do not have.   This is where many families fail.  They are either ignorant or do not care how much things have changed.  The principles our grandparents used to keep our parents safe have not changed.  They are still in force today.  We would never have gotten into a car with someone we didn’t personally know.  Today you call Uber or Lyft and don’t give it a second thought.  Wisdom does not skip a generation.  What was ok back then might not be today.

Isaac did not throw a fit.  He didn’t accuse God of being unfair.  He didn’t throw it is God’s face that dad was able to go to Egypt, but now he wasn’t.  Isaac trusted the LORD that HE knew best.  Instead of going to Egypt, he found relief in the land of Gerar.  Isaac didn’t repeat some of the same mistakes that Abraham made.  It took Isaac and Rebekah twenty years to conceive.  In that time, Rebekah never gave a handmaid to Isaac to father a child.  Abraham lied twice regarding Sarah as his wife.  Isaac made that mistake only once.  Isaac learned from the mistakes of his father.  Abraham went into Egypt and that is where Hagar was from.  Hagar is the mother of Ishmael, the half-brother to Isaac.  I am sure it didn’t go without notice when the LORD told Isaac not to go into Egypt that Hagar and Ishmael may have been a concern.  In short, we must trust the LORD for our specific set of circumstances.  Just because the LORD allows some the liberty that He does not allow for us only means He cares for us.  He knows what is best and we have to learn to trust that.

Don't Be Like an Ostrich

“O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.” (Pr 8:5 AV)

Generally speaking, in the book of Proverbs, knowledge is the gathering of facts, understanding is working to facts to ascertain application, and wisdom is the discipline to put into practice what one has come to understand.  What strikes me here is the emphasis on the heart when it comes to understanding.  Usually, the heart is associated with wisdom, not with understanding.  Once the individual gathers the facts, he or she works those facts.  It is the conclusion of those facts that often challenge the heart.  For instance, looking at all the effort ingredients and technique might be required to make a pineapple upside down cake, the cook might decide a bowl of ice cream would be more desirable.  Perhaps Solomon is encouraging those who have the foresight and can see where knowledge is headed so they avoid concluding with the obvious.  The understanding heart is the heart humble and prepared to take knowledge wherever it may lead.  The former is like an ostrich.  Their head is buried in the sand and it will know only what it thinks it needs to know.  The understanding heart is like the eagle that soars above it all and takes it all in.

Medical treatment has changed over the decades.  Some for the better.  Some not so much.  One characteristic that has changed is how much the practitioner informs their patient along the process of diagnosis.  Years ago, the doctor would keep you informed of what he was thinking.  If you went in with symptoms, he would explain what he was looking for that would necessitate the tests he had ordered.  In today’s medical marketplace, this is not so much the case.  It may be for the better.  With the invention of electronic medical records, it is way too easy to find results and search them on the internet.  It is way too easy to assume a certain outcome when there are much less serious conditions.  By withholding Hypotheticals, the practitioner is accomplishing several things.  He or she cannot be accused of causing undo stress.  Second, the practitioner can limit the scope of what is examined without the patient seeking unnecessary tests or labs.  Thirdly, and more to the point of our text, if the patient reads into lab and test results, they may assume an outcome that is not good and refuse future treatment or tests to determine the true nature of the illness.  In other words, the patient would have no heart to understand the full scope of the situation.  He or she can be like that ostrich with his head in the ground.  If he cannot see it, it must not exist.

Fear, immaturity, desire, etc all contribute to a heart that doesn’t want to understand.  This doesn’t change a thing.  We can bury our heads in the sand, but it doesn’t change what is going on around us.  Burying his head in the sand is not going to make the wolf go away.  If anything, a foolish heart that doesn’t want to understand makes it easier for the adversary.  The best thing to do is face life head on.  The best thing to do is to meditate on the knowledge found in scripture no matter where it might lead.  The lost ignore the obvious.  One day we all die.  That is unavoidable.  One day, we will exist for all of eternity in one place or the other.  Most of those with whom I speak never give it a thought.  They get older.  They get sicker.  But if they don’t think about it, they don’t have to deal with it.  This trait is not limited to the lost.  The saved do the same thing.  When the word of God deals with the heart, we avoid it because we don’t like the conclusion.  When the Holy Spirit deals with us, we don’t like the conclusion.  So, we frustrate the work of the Spirit.  We don’t read the word of God.  Or, if we do, we do not meditate on it because we don’t like where it is going.  That is the heart that doesn’t care for understanding.  This is the warning Solomon is giving to his children.  Have a heart that desires understanding no matter where it may end up.