Tag: disobedience

Obedience is Better than Sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22-31)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

“Tell me,” Samuel said. “Does the Lord really want sacrifices and offerings? No! He doesn’t want your sacrifices. He wants you to obey him. Rebelling against God or disobeying him because you are proud is just as bad as worshiping idols or asking them for advice. You refused to do what God told you, so God has decided that you can no longer be king.”

“I have sinned,” Saul admitted. “I disobeyed both you and the Lord. I was afraid of the army, and I listened to them instead. Please forgive me and come back with me so I can worship the Lord.”

“No!” Samuel replied, “You disobeyed the Lord, and I won’t go back with you. Now the Lord has said that you can’t be king of Israel any longer.”

As Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed the edge of Samuel’s robe. It tore! Samuel said, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel away from you today, and he will give it to someone who is better than you. Besides, the eternal God of Israel isn’t a human being. He doesn’t tell lies or change his mind.”

Saul said, “I did sin, but please honor me in front of the leaders of the army and the people of Israel. Come back with me, so I can worship the Lord your God.”

Samuel followed Saul back, and Saul worshiped the Lord. (Contemporary English Version)

God had given Saul explicit instructions on how to handle a group of people called the Amalekites (the first nation to attack the Jewish people after the Exodus from Egypt, and viewed as the archetypal enemy of the Jews). Saul obeyed only some of the instructions, but not all of them.

King Saul rationalized his behavior as worship. But God would have none of it. The Lord rejected Saul as king. God wants no monkey business when it comes to obedience. (1 Samuel 15:1-21)

Whenever I come across biblical characters like Saul, I find myself trying to distance from them. Yet, oftentimes, when I take the time to sit a bit with the Scriptures, I realize I can have some of the same propensities as their behavior. In today’s Old Testament lesson, I am like Saul whenever:

  • I say I will do something and then get busy and not do it. I sometimes rationalize my lack of follow through by explaining what good things I was doing with my time instead.
  • I justify a purchase of something I do not really need, but want, with the excuse that I am generous with my money.
  • I slander another person, even though its forbidden by God, with the knucklehead notion that I am protecting and helping others from that person’s evil ways.
  • I keep quiet in the face of a bad situation when I should be speaking up. I dismiss the lack of engagement and involvement with needing to save my energy for people who want it….

I could keep going with this little exercise, but I’m too convicted to keep thinking about it anymore. So, before we get too uppity about saying we are not like Saul and would never be like him, perhaps we ought to sit with the story for a while, being mindful and aware of any unacknowledged disobedience.

Rationalization is the way of sinners.  Repentance is the path of saints.  Which road will you choose today?

Unfortunately, as the story of Saul’s life unfolds, we discover that the encounter with Samuel becomes a typical pattern of behavior in which Saul:

  1. Disobeys or ignores God’s commands
  2. Rationalizes his bad behavior by putting a spiritual spin on it
  3. Is confronted with his sin
  4. “Repents” with crocodile tears
  5. Then goes back to his old ways of doing whatever the heck he wants

It seems that whenever Saul feels threatened, or anxious, or jealous, or stressed, he crumbles into a heap of fear and ends up making boneheaded decisions, hurting people, or becoming complicit in somebody else’s sin.

Don’t be like Saul.

Instead, get to the root of the trouble by addressing your own anxiety.

Focus on What Is Within Your Control

We cannot control other people. Many circumstances are also outside our control. However, we are always in control of ourselves. Learn good self-care, focus on helpful attitudes, and use the adversity before you to strengthen your faith.

The Serenity Prayer is a good reminder in those times when we feel out of control:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

Promote a Positive Mindset

Positive attitudes help us widen our perspective on things – and with a broader view of things comes more awareness of choices. Making spiritually and emotionally healthy choices for ourselves builds resilience and fortifies us for difficult situations down the road, without succumbing to old unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Be Humble

False humility looks a lot like what Saul did. But true humility isn’t about trying to save face or suck up to others. It’s about the willingness to ask for what you need and want without manipulation, to serve others without making sure everyone notices. Humility relates to, and empathizes with, others and doesn’t go out of the way to distance from folks on the lower end of society. And humility is always willing to accept the consequences of decisions and actions.

Rationalizing disobedience never ends well, especially with a God who holds everyone accountable for their words and behaviors. So, let’s all do ourselves a favor, and seek the good, the right, and the just with a spirit of meekness.

Holy God, you expect obedience to clear instructions. I am sorry for all those times I found creative ways to circumvent your teaching. Help me not to avoid your good commands, but to own them with vigor and vitality through Jesus Christ my Lord in the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Listen! (Psalm 81)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Shout for joy to God our defender;
    sing praise to the God of Jacob!
Start the music and beat the tambourines;
    play pleasant music on the harps and the lyres.
Blow the trumpet for the festival,
    when the moon is new and when the moon is full.
This is the law in Israel,
    an order from the God of Jacob.
He gave it to the people of Israel
    when he attacked the land of Egypt.

I hear an unknown voice saying,
“I took the burdens off your backs;
    I let you put down your loads of bricks.
When you were in trouble, you called to me, and I saved you.
    From my hiding place in the storm, I answered you.
    I put you to the test at the springs of Meribah.
Listen, my people, to my warning;
    Israel, how I wish you would listen to me!
You must never worship another god.
I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you out of Egypt.
Open your mouth, and I will feed you.

“But my people would not listen to me;
    Israel would not obey me.
So I let them go their stubborn ways
    and do whatever they wanted.
How I wish my people would listen to me;
    how I wish they would obey me!
I would quickly defeat their enemies
    and conquer all their foes.
Those who hate me would bow in fear before me;
    their punishment would last forever.
But I would feed you with the finest wheat
    and satisfy you with wild honey.” (Good News Translation)

I have a wife and three daughters. They talk – a lot! When my girls were small, it was hard to get their attention long enough for them to hear anything I was saying. So I oftentimes cupped my hands to their little faces so they couldn’t look around and get distracted. Then, I would speak, with them looking me straight in the eye.

It’s hard to listen. And listening seems to be a lost art and a skill we no longer care to develop. Maybe that’s because we’re obsessed with hearing ourselves talk. There’s so much chatter about so many things that we rarely even remember much of what we said; and a lot of those words get uttered before we even think. 

What’s more, when other people talk, most of it seems like a bunch of gibberish, due to our lack of focused attention. Perhaps we need an adult version of the hand-cupping we do with kids.

We really need the wisdom to know when to speak and when to be quiet. Whenever being quiet is required, it’s for the purpose of listening. And whenever words and noise are needed, it’s to praise God with our mouths and our musical instruments.

In this day and age, folks get so worked up to express their opinions, and say what they want to say, that the virtue of listening is not at all valued. However, God puts a premium on taking the stance of listening. 

The more you talk, the more likely you are to sin. If you are wise, you will keep quiet. (Proverbs 10:19, GNT)

Another reason listening is not well-practiced is that we esteem being busy and constant activity, to such a degree, that taking the time for silence long enough to listen is not of value to us. But if God’s people are going to hear the voice of the Lord, we must be still and silent, long enough to listen to what’s being said to us.

And yet another reason we eschew listening is that we are uncomfortable with silence, and seek to fill any quiet space with noise so as to not have to deal with what is really going on inside of us. Since God often speaks within the stillness and quietness of things, we’ll never hear, because our inner dialogue is drowning the words we need to listen to. (1 Kings 19:11-12)

I have a friend (I’ll call him Elmer) who spent eighteen hours in complete silence, without any talking whatsoever, in order to listen to God. You might think that Elmer is a monkish sort of introvert who likes that sort of thing. However, he’s actually an extrovert who lives in the inner city and comes from a large family. 

Elmer simply came to the point of understanding that he was so busy moving from one thing to another, and constantly talking, to the point that he was drowning-out the voice of the Lord. Here’s what Elmer said about his time of silence: 

“Those eighteen hours of silence were the loudest hours I have ever experienced. My mind was so noisy and so filled with stuff that it nearly drove me nuts. But after many hours passed, as the noise started to fade away, I could begin to hear the still small voice of God.” 

Elmer discovered that he was a person who kept pushing and projecting his agenda onto God. His lack of listening led to an inability to obey. After Elmer’s experience, he determined to start including times of solitude and silence into his everyday life, even if for only ten minutes, so he could listen to what God wants rather than tell God what to do.

The Lord came and stood there, and called as he had before, “Samuel! Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak; your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10, GNT)

Any fool can babble on about their gripes and opinions. In Holy Scripture, however, human speech is generally viewed as being overrated. Instead, silence and solitude, listening and learning, are the virtues practiced by Jesus; the kingdom of God cannot operate without them.

Therefore, we must take up the shield of faith with which to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one who wants to keep us trapped in either a cycle of constant chatter without listening, or continual silence without acting upon what we hear from God. 

We must be quiet for the purpose of listening to God. Then, when we hear the Lord speak, we must act in faith to say and do what we are called to.

God of silence and of all sound, help me to listen! Enable me to be patient and wait for your still small voice calling me. Give me attentive ears that can separate the noise from the sounds that are you. Today help me to hear you anew so that I may obey with wisdom and obedience. Amen.

Bread from Heaven (Exodus 16:27-35)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Bread From Heaven, by Nigel Wynter

On the seventh day some people went out to gather food, but they didn’t find any. The Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to do what I have commanded and instructed you to do? Remember: The Lord has given you this day of rest as a holy day. That’s why he gives you enough food on the sixth day for two days. On the seventh day stay in your place—no one is to go out. Everyone, stay where you are.” So the people never worked on the seventh day of the week.

The Israelites called the food manna. It was like coriander seeds. It was white and tasted like wafers made with honey.

Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: Take two quarts of manna to be kept for your descendants. This way they will see the food that I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.”

Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, put two quarts of manna in it, and put it in the Lord’s presence to be kept for your descendants.” Aaron put the jar of manna in front of the words of God’s promise to be kept there, as the Lord commanded Moses.

The Israelites ate manna for 40 years until they came to a place to settle. They ate manna until they came to the border of Canaan. (God’s Word Translation)

“What is it?” is the quite literal meaning of the word manna. And the answer is: It is bread from heaven.

The manna was food for the Israelite people in their 40 years of sojourning through the desert. There is also an implicit question surrounding this bread: What to do with it? Well, of course, you eat it. But, before eating it, there are issues and instructions about the manna’s arrival and collection.

The special food, only graciously given to this particular group of cantankerous people, appeared in the mornings for six days a week, not seven, and only had a shelf life of one day, with the exception of the singular Sabbath day each week.

There is a time to go out and gather, and there is a time to stay put and eat; a time to work, and a time to rest. The lack of wisdom in timing could cost you not only a meal, but also your overall sense of paying attention to God’s commands.

It is the fool who spurns the relationship between events, that is, the space between when the Lord speaks and when humanity responds. Our human responsibility is dependent upon Divine sovereignty. Ignoring the voice of God, or simply failing to listen out of present anxieties or fears, will nearly always result in a skewed response-ability.

Yes, indeed, we all have very legitimate needs for cuisine, clothing, companionship, care, and compassion. If these vital needs go unmet, we are undone and shall die. Yet, there is also the question of how we will go about getting those very important and basic needs met – and many people, having not listened well to the instructions about life, will go about attempting to meet those needs in illegitimate ways.

Trying to satisfy legitimate needs through illegitimate means ends up eroding the soul, compromising character, and searing the conscience. It’s inevitable that such a person will grumble and complain, projecting on God the evil that is, in reality, residing within the human heart.

Whenever folks go out and try to gather what isn’t there, they have lost their way and their very real needs will not really be met, at all.

This is why humans need remembrances – to have reminders of what time it is and what’s important to do and not do, to seek the appropriate paths of living well, and to avoid the pitfalls of dead end trails.

One purpose of Sabbath is to remember – to recall the great story of deliverance and never forget where we came from, so that we will continually have before us where we are going.

I Am the Bread of Life, by Joseph Matar

The Christian remembers the saving and redemptive events of Jesus by coming to the Table. We gather together to ingest bread from heaven, to partake of the Bread of Life. For those who choose to carefully listen and pay attention, the words of Christ will not only speak life into our weary selves, but shall also shape how we go about getting our needs met and satisfied:

The people began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven….”

But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me….

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”

Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.

So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.” (John 6:41-58, NLT)

Consider well, then, where and how you will find the sustenance of the soul, love, and in what ways you will listen to the words of Jesus and gather them for your next meal. Will you hoard your heaven-sent food, or will you share?

O God, our Provider and Sustainer, we who are many are one body in Christ, for we all share in the one bread. Refresh, strengthen, and preserve us as we journey in this life, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Be Resilient, Not Resistant (Exodus 16:9-21)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Israelites gather manna in the desert, by Ercole de’ Roberti (1451-1496)

Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’”

While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.

The Lord said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.

Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’”

The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.

Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”

However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.

Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. (New International Version)

Despite the grumbling and complaining, the Lord determined to do good, even though the ancient Israelites in the desert were quite unworthy of it. It is to God’s glory to act according to the divine nature of mercy and grace, unlike the mass of humanity.

What’s more, the Lord not only freely gave, but also provided abundantly for the people – and all they had to do was go out and gather what God so mercifully bestowed. No matter what people do or don’t do, the Lord is always true to character, showing steadfast love.

Most of the people responded with obedience to God’s instructions concerning the manna from heaven. Yet, there were still some who ignored the commands, preferring to act with avarice by hoarding the abundance of food gathered.

A miser collects with a stingy attitude and cruel heart; but the Lord takes it away with maggots, moths, or any other creature God calls upon to correct the erring person. An individual is part of a society that is to be concerned for the whole of their citizens.

Whether hoarding or handing out, everyone is meant to move through an unwanted situation or missed expectation with faith and resilience. The following are three simple phrases to keep in mind and practice amidst the complexity of overwhelming circumstances:

Let it be

Accept the situation as it is and not as you want it to be. Embrace the awkward and uncomfortable. Situations, such as wondering where your next meal is coming from, aren’t helped with grumbling. We need to face what is actually in front of us.

Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. (Hebrews 10:33-35, NIV)

Let it go

Difficult feelings and a more than a few unhelpful thoughts pop up for us when experiencing trouble. Try to see the big picture and consider alternative thoughts. Let go of the disobedient thoughts and bitter feelings.

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. (Acts 3:19-20, NIV)

Let it in

Open yourself to God’s Spirit, self-compassion, and cut yourself some slack. You are going through a hard thing. Reflect on what you handled well, and also what you could have done differently.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16, NIV)

The process – let it be, let it go, and let it in – is a circuitous path and not a neat linear progression. You will get all your needs met, and so, move at pace that works for you, instead of trying to compulsively gather manna at someone else’s anxious pace.

Let grumbling be turned to gratitude, murmuring to mercy, and complaining to consent. This is the path of resilience.

Heavenly Father, you have promised to hear what we ask in the Name of your Son: Accept and fulfill our petitions, we pray, not as we ask in our ignorance, nor as we deserve in our sinfulness, but as you know and love us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.