People Watching

Helen and I were sitting in a café, enjoying each other’s company and an afternoon tea. We could not help overhearing the conversation among half a dozen well-spoken ladies in their 50’s on the adjacent table. They were explaining to one of their number that at the parties they frequented that that if your handbag is on your left shoulder then you are ‘available’ that evening, and a bag on the right shoulder indicated you were not!

While I enjoy people watching when I am in a café, a more useful version of people watching is to try and understand the motivation and reason for people’s behavior in the bible. 

In the Book of John (in the bible) we read about Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary & Martha, who are good friends with Jesus. 

Mary & Martha send Jesus a message “Lord, your dear friend is very sick”. There are no mobile phones, so the message is carried by some people travelling to where Jesus is staying. It’s interesting that that the sisters inform Jesus of the problem, but don’t tell him the solution. When we bring our problems to Jesus, do we expect him to do things our way? Or do we recognize that his response will be inline with his Fathers good and perfect will? If we do recognize this, we can confidently leave the problem in his hands without subsequently worrying when the solution does not look like we thought it should.

After a delay of two days Jesus says to his disciples ‘lets go see Lazarus’. The disciples objected to this. What was motivating the disciple’s objection? Circumstances had, a few days before when Jesus and the disciples were in the area which Lazarus, Mary and Martha lived people had tried to kill Jesus. What’s Jesus motivation? He knew his Father wanted him to go back so that Lazarus sickness would end in bringing glory to God. How did Jesus know all this? I believe it's because he regularly spent time alone communicating with his Father God. Do you let yourself  be buffeted about by circumstances and other people’s opinions, or do you spend regular time alone in his presence so he can direct our steps?

When they arrive in the area of Lazarus home Lazarus had been dead for four days. When Jesus saw Mary crying and the people surrounding her wailing in sadness a deep anger welled up within Jesus. Why did Jesus get angry?

(1) The answer to this can be found if we consider that God, through the bible, uses anthropomorphisms to describe himself to us. He does this, because language drawn from our own personal life is the most accurate medium for communicating to us about himself.  (2) Anthropomorphism is describing or treating animals, objects or gods as if they are human in appearance, character or behavior. For example, a meme of Winnie the Poo and Piglet talking like humans. (3)When anthropomorphisms are used in the bible about God we need to remember that man is not a measure of God. Where the language of human personal life is used to describe God remember that he does not have the same limitations as we do.

Jesus anger is not an outburst of human anger resulting from pride, tiredness or irritability. It’s a reaction of holiness to sin.  

Jesus, the Son of God was angry at sin itself and the death, pain and sadness it causes. I have often heard people say, ‘if there is a God and he loves us then why does he let bad things happen?’ The reason bad things happen is a consequence of human’s sin, not because God let it happen. Gods loving responses to the pain and sadness we all suffer because of sin is a deep welling up of holy anger against sin and it’s  consequences. 

(1) & (3)  J.I. Packers book ‘Knowing God’, page's 188 & 189. ISBN 0 34019713 7.

(2) Cambridge Dictionary. 

 

^{When Someone else gets all the toys!}

Most of us have seen a toddler, and maybe even an adult having a tantrum because someone else has a toy they want.

I have (mostly) outgrown having tantrums. But sometimes my reaction when someone else gets something is not great. Like the jealously I felt when a friend got a fancy new car, or my frustration rearing its ugly head at my career plateau with the news my friend has a (well-deserved) promotion.   

Numbers chapter 7 is not the most exciting chapter in the bible. It’s a list of gifts given by the leaders and tribes of Israel to the Lord when the Tabernacle was being dedicated. The gifts included some wagons and oxen.

The tribe of Levi had the job of taking the tabernacle tent down and transporting it and its contents to the next location. Mosses distributed the wagons and oxen among the Levi families according to the work they had to do, carrying the tent poles etc. Out of all of them, one of the families, the Kohathite’s, didn’t get any of the wagons and oxen. The Kohathite’s were responsible for carrying the sacred objects of the Tabernacle. Unlike the tent poles & covering’s, the sacred objects could not be put into the wagons and had to be carried on the Kohathite’s shoulders.

I wonder if any of the Kohathite’s felt jealous because they didn’t get any wagons, maybe they felt left out, unappreciated and second best. As they trudged along carrying everything on their shoulders did the Kohathite’s feel frustrated that they were stuck carrying things while others used the wagons.

There was a good reason for carrying the sacred objects on their shoulders, rather than in wagons. God had told Mosses that if the Kohathite’s touch the sacred object they would die. So, carrying poles were slotted into the sacred objects, or there carrying frames. This allowed the objects to be carried without the Kohathite’s touching the sacred objects. In 2 Samuel chapter 6, we read that generations after Mosses had distributed the wagons, the Ark of the Covenant, a sacred object from the tabernacle, is carried in a cart. While going over rough ground the Oxon stumble and Uzzah reaches out to steady the Ark and he drops dead.

Whatever work God gives us, he equips us for, and does this at the time it’s needed. We don’t all have the same work, so we are not all going to get the same equipment (gifting's, skills etc.). Sometimes I get frustrated with Gods timing, why am I not getting the promotion yet, or think I need something to make the work I have been given easier or more effective. But God see’s the bigger picture, sometimes what or when I want something is not good for me.

 

Ugly made lovely

Four years ago I visited Bath for a one night break away from a busy life to meet a friend and spend some time  reflecting. Whilst waiting for my friend to arrive I made an unplanned visit to a church. Inside was a communion table made out of old broken and ugly bits of wood which a creative craftsmen had turned into a lovely table. At the time it reminded me that The Creator can take ugly brokenness and turn it into something of purpose and lovely to see.


Deuteronomy 23:5" But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam. He turned the intended curse into a blessing because the Lord your God loves you".

As I sat looking at that table I was in a period of my life when I was dealing with the ugliness of life and since then I have been broken by stress. But in both ugliness and brokenness, what was intended as a curse has been turned into a blessing by The Creator, my Lord God.

Wherever your at in life, there is hope.

 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with Hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" .

Tears in a bottle

Do you ever find yourself in tough circumstances, under attack, people out to get you?

David took on Goliath the Philistine Giant with his slingshot and a stone and killed him, defeating the Philistine champion and causing the Philistine army to be defeated. He was the hero, on the up.

Roll forward maybe a couple of years and David is seized by a vengeful group of Philistines. David writes about this time in Psalm 56.

Many of us can relate to at least some of his experiance, being hounded, slandered, attacked, afraid, people twisting his words against him, plotting against him, being spied upon and watched closely for opportunities to harm him.

Despite the evidence of Davids situation appearing to say that God had forgotten him and did not care about what was happening to him this was not true for David and when we are in tough circumstances it is not true for us. God cares so much about our sorrow that he collects our tears in a bottle! Psalm 56:8 "You (God) keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." Awsome!

What can we learn from David's response when people were out to get him?

Mercy - He asked God for Mercy, for God to respond to his situation in an unexpected and unmerited way.

Trust - He actively put his trust in God, trusting him to keep his promises even when his circumstances gave him reason to doubt.

Praise - He praised God for things promised even though they had not yet happened.

Compared wisely - Rather than compare the power of those out to get him against his own abilities he compared them to God's power.

Asked - He asked God to intervene. Do we actually ask God for his intervention or do we keep trying to get through on our own?

Afterwards - To often we let other things take first place in our lives once we are out of the tough times, rather than put God first. In his time of trouble David made promises to God, once the tough circumstances were over he recognised he needed to keep those promises and he sought to do life in God's presence.