Obedience

I have a pastor friend who tells the story of his five-year-old daughter riding her new “big wheel” tricycle on their driveway the day after Christmas.  He told her that she could ride the trike anywhere on the driveway all the way to the line that separated into a slope leading to the street but no further.  He was concerned that she would venture out into the danger of the street, so he wanted her well away from the slope.  The line was not to be messed with.  “If you cross it, you will get a spanking,” he warned her. 

Predictably, the girl (who, my friend says, was by very nature a “line pusher”) kept riding right up to the line and then looking back over her shoulder at her daddy to note his attentiveness.  He watched her intently as she kept trying to test the line.   Over and over she rode, circling and circling closer and closer to the limits of obedience.  Finally she stopped the big wheel and said emphatically and defiantly to her dad, “Well, I guess you had better start spanking because I’m gonna cross that line!” 

I love this story as a way to illustrate what is in the human heart.  The Bible teaches that our hearts are in open rebellion against God and that it is in our nature to say, “I’m gonna cross that line!” 

Our study this week is a lesson in obedience.  How often have we questioned God and wondered about His ways?  How often have we found it difficult to truly obey His will and subject ourselves to His word? And yet our lack of obedience is a sign of our lack of trust.  Just like a five year old who doesn’t understand the meaning of a parent’s hard line, we rebel against God because we see His ways as primitive or demanding.  And yet we know intuitively that a parent makes the rules because of love and sees that obedience is first and foremost an act of love and trust.  That is the deeper lesson of the text this week.     

2 Samuel 24:10-19:David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”
So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”
On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad.

There and Back Again

By Kathleen Broadhurst

 Well, it has been over a month now since I have been home and I apologize that this is the first that you have heard anything from me in that time. Returning home after almost a year away is it’s own sort of adventure.

To those who have been waiting to see what happened next, I’m sorry for the delay, life has been rough and my landing bumpy. There is a lot of work to do once you return from a trip like ours, getting new jobs, finding a place to live, unpacking boxes, trying to find your rice-cooker, sneakers, favorite blanket, ect.

It seems like after a month things are starting to settle down, I’ve found work, doing some writing no less, so I’m starting to feel like I may actually be able to connect my experiences in the world to something at home.

We found a sweet little apartment that sits in between an old fashioned New England green and railroad tracks. Though the noise from the train is loud it helps me feel connected to the wider world. When it rushes by I can’t help but think about where it’s been and where it is going. It eases the feeling of claustrophobia that has been haunting me since my return.

Coming home is at once deeply satisfying and also sad. It has been a marvelous thing to see the faces of friends and family again, to recognize people on the street and to be greeted in old spaces. But it is hard not to think of those who I left behind in Melbourne, or those who are still traveling. The friends I made on the road are often in my mind and knowing how far away they all are is hard to come to terms with.

The silence that accompanied my return has also been a bit strange. I don’t know why, whether it’s because I’m in America, or because a year is a bit to long to really ask about or if people simply aren’t interested but surprisingly few people have wanted to hear about the trip.

Some days I wake up and wonder if it was all a dream. Its hard to believe, sitting here at my new kitchen table, listening to the cicadas outside that I have ridden on the rooftop of a bus climbing the Himalayas, or watched as mourners follows a funeral procession through the streets of Varanasi. The scents and smells of a Cambodian marketplace, all fish sauce and ice and cheap polyester, the way the sky looked from my apartment in Melbourne, seem like dreams as unreal as any I have at night.

This is the trip in travel. It’s a bit surreal.

Plans…. Where we go from here? It’s hard to say, we don’t yet know ourselves. At the moment we need rest, which is proving hard to come by with a busy summer social calendar, and money, which given the state of the American economy, is also a bit of a challenge. It looks like we intend to stay in one place for a while to attempt to invest ourselves in projects that will take a few years to really show their merit.

Some of those projects are related to travel, some are completely different. Stay tuned to this blog for updates. If you are just joining us now, please, feel free to start the story at the beginning.

I do know that despite my best intentions to love being home I’m already scanning the articles on travel websites and the perusing guidebooks in the local bookstore.

Somebody once said that their favorite place part of travel was imaging the next country and planning the next trip. I second that.

Because really, the trip never stops, the trip is life. The journey will continue. Travel on.

Repentance

The word “repent” means to “change directions.” I have always found that explanation of the word to be helpful. When I think of this word, I picture someone walking one direction and turning around and going the opposite direction. To repent means more than just stopping in your tracks, it means to set a new course. Another good picture is of someone making a u-turn in a car. As a guy who has always been directionally challenged, this explanation resonates with me.  God did not bless me with an internal compass like he has a lot of people, so I have spent a lot of time in my life looking at a map only to realize that I need to turn around and go the opposite way. 

There are a couple of things I’ve noticed about changing directions. One,something or someone needs to reveal that a change of course is needed. And two, one has to be humble enough to accept the fact that you are going the wrong way and be willing to make the change. 

I stress the word humble here, because it is never easy for me to admit to my wife that I’ve made a wrong turn or that I’m lost. It is hard for me to humble myself in this way. Even after all these years and both of us talking about and even laughing about me lacking a sense of direction, it’s still hard for me to admit! I’ve noticed this is a trait in a lot of men and a sore spot in a lot of marriages. Someone has said that the reason Moses wandered in the wilderness for 40 years is because he wasn’t willing to stop and ask directions. 

Several years ago, I got lost trying to find a new “short cut” driving from our home in Texas to my parents’ house in Oklahoma City. I was lost, but didn’t want to admit that I was lost. In the process of finding my way, I also lost track of my speed and got stopped by a “minister of reminder” (Texas Highway Patrol). While he was ticketing me for speeding, I asked him to settle an argument with my wife and me, and to tell her that I was on the right road and on the right track. He just laughed and said, “You are actually going the opposite direction from where you need to go if you want to go to Oklahoma City.” 

That is what it means to repent. It is authoritative information and humility. It means to learn definitively that you are going the opposite direction from where you need to go and to be humbled to the degree that you are willing to turn around and change course. The experience is a vivid illustration of the true meaning of this biblical concept. As we will see in our study of David this week, repentance is an essential aspect of the Christian life. 

2 Samuel 12:1-7

The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

“Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.’”

Summary of Text: David is confronted in his sin.  

Memory Verse:  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit (Psalm 51:10-12 ESV).

Monday:  Read the passage. How did Nathan confront David? In what ways do you think this confrontation was helpful to David? Why is it important to have people in your life speak truth? How does the word of God speak truth to you? 

Tuesday:  Read the passage. How was David impacted by the parable Nathan used? How did God use the story to change David’s heart?  

Wednesday:   Read the passage again. Memorize the memory verse. Read Psalm 51. What does this Psalm teach us about David’s ability to repent? Why is repentance so important? 

Thursday:  Read and memorize the memory verse. Read the passage. What kind of courage did it take for Nathan to confront David? Do you have this kind of courage? Where did Nathan get his sense of security and strength to make this confrontation?

Friday:  Read the passage again. Do you have a Nathan in your life? Do you have people in your life who tell you the truth? Ask God to lead you to greater accountability in your life. Ask Him to show you how you can be this for the people you love. 

Saturday:  Read the passage. Read Psalm 51 again. Write down any new thoughts you might have about these passages.       

Sunday:  Make today a day of rest and worship. Pray for the right attitude and an open heart and mind today. Come to church.

Glory

Glory is an overused word. People will say they are doing all kinds of things for “glory.” The result is that when most people hear the word these days, they think of everything from athletic fields to post cards, but likely don’t think of its most important meaning. It literally means “weight” in Hebrew (kabod) and has a connotation that is extraordinarily important to our understanding of the Gospel and our spiritual lives. 

When the Bible speaks of God’s glory, it is telling us that nothing in this life should carry more weight. His joy and presence in our lives should be more substantive and should matter more than anything else. Our search for glory is, in essence, our search for meaning and purpose. The greatest fear people have in life is not the fear of death or pain, but the fear that their lives won’t matter and is a result of the way God has created us. The result is that we search for those things that give our life meaning. If we try to find meaning in anything other than God, then we are seeking our own glory and not His. This is the essence of our sin, and the Bible teaches that it is the biggest struggle we have. 

Our Bible study this week, found in 1 and 2 Samuel, is a graphic example of man’s struggle with an understanding of the glory of God. In this story, the Ark of the Lord was a physical manifestation and representation of God’s glory. It was not a religious artifact as much as it was a transcendent embodiment of His presence. As such, it was both spectacular and unbelievably dangerous. The same can be said of our search for His glory. It is the most important pursuit in our lives, and its destructive power in us is impossible to comprehend.  

1 Samuel 5:1; 2 Samuel 6:1-15

After the Philistines had captured the Ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the Ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.

David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the Ark. They set the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the Ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.

When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the Ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the Ark of God.

Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.

David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the Ark of the Lord ever come to me?” He was not willing to take the Ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The Ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household. Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the Ark of God.” So David went to bring up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the Ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the Ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

Summary of Text: David brings the Ark of the Lord back to Israel.

Memory Verse: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

Monday:  Read the passage.  If the ark of the Lord represents the glory of God, what does this tell us about His glory? How is it powerful? How is it dangerous? Why do people long for God’s glory? 

Tuesday:  Read the passage. In what ways is the ark a problem? How is it true that God’s glory is both essential to us and dangerous for us? How do people try to find glory in the wrong ways today? How does our search for His glory often lead us to religious works? In what ways do religious works destroy us?

Wednesday:   Read the passage again. Memorize the memory verse. How does David get it right by his celebration of the coming of the ark? In what ways do we find life and purpose and joy by celebrating His glory?

Thursday:  Read and memorize the memory verse. In what ways do we behold the glory of God in what we find in Christ? How does Christ lead us to His glory? The ark of the Lord is an illustration to us of the chasm between God and man. In the temple there had to be a sacrifice in order to come into His presence. In what ways does this point us to the truth that only Christ’s sacrifice brings us to His glory?

Friday:  Read the passage again. How does the ark of the Lord point us to Jesus? How is His glory satisfied in Christ’s work?

Saturday:  Read the passage. Read Exodus 33:19-21. How does this passage relate to the one we’ve studied this week?     

Sunday:  Make today a day of rest and worship. Pray for the right attitude and an open heart and mind today.  Come to church.