2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
The Lord prompts me to discuss a difficult topic today, that of friction that arises between people and how He wants us to handle it. He is our Jehovah Raah, the Lord is my Shepherd. It is a fact of our lives that any time two or more people come together the potential exists for disagreements. One might say that the propensity for this is the devil’s work. Even Satan himself in the sad story of IS 14: 11-15 demonstrates that things were not always at peace in heaven. [The Lord speaking to Satan] “You used to be honored with the music of harps, but now here you are in the world of the dead. You lie on a bed of maggots and are covered with a blanket of worms. King of Babylon, bright morning star, you have fallen from heaven! In the past you conquered nations, but now you have been thrown down to the ground. You were determined to climb up to heaven and to place your throne above the highest stars. You thought you would sit like a king on that mountain in the north where the gods assemble. You said you would climb to the tops of the clouds and be like the Almighty. But, instead, you have been brought down to the deepest part of the world of the dead.” This describes what happened when Satan, previously known as Lucifer and God’s most prized angel in charge of worship in heaven, is expelled from heaven along with one third of the heavenly host evil enough to follow him. Imagine God’s disappointment.
That set in motion Satan’s dirty work done to try to thwart the goodness of Jehovah Raah by setting people in conflict with each other. A key verse in the Lord’s prayer is MT 6: 12, “Forgive us our transgressions as we forgive those who transgress against us.” Christ’s decision to say this is an outgrowth of His earlier teaching in MT 5: 44-45, “But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the sons of your Father in heaven. For He makes His sun to shine on bad and good people alike and give rain to those who do good and to those who do evil.” This is something that is difficult for a person angry at another to do, and Jehovah Raah knows it. But, He also knows that we must learn to forgive and pray for people we believe to be evil, because it is necessary for our sanctification to move forward. There is no place in this for holding grudges. What a better world it would be if more people understood that! Christ goes on to make the picture of God’s will clear in MT 6: 14-15. “If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done.”
We can avoid a lot of conflicts by using the intelligence God gave us. That is easy to say and hard to do at times when we are sorely tempted to feel hatred toward someone we feel has wronged us or to strike back in anger at words that we feel are abusive. Our Shepherd gives us His view of things through Paul in 1 COR 5: 6-8. “It is not right for you to be proud! You know the saying, ‘A little bit of yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise.’ You must removed the old yeast of sin so that you will be entirely pure. Then you will be like a new batch of dough without any yeast, as indeed I know you actually are. For our Passover festival is ready, now that Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us celebrate our Passover, then, not with bread having the old yeast of sin and wickedness, but with the bread that has no yeast, the bread of purity and truth.” There aren’t many black and white dichotomies in this life, but this is one of them. There is no such thing as being “a little pregnant,” either one is or she isn’t. The same is true for harboring sinful thoughts and actions. Either one does or he doesn’t.
Harboring ill will against another affects one’s entire life. The Lord makes this clear in MT 5: 23-24 when He speaks of its effects on worship itself. “So if you are about to offer your gift to God at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift to God.” If we put this in more practical terms, coming to take the sacrament for the believer is one of the most significant things he does. While our loving Shepherd offers us forgiveness there, we would dishonor Him if we acted as a hypocrite coming to this sacred table while holding a grudge against another. These are tough words for us to dwell on, because we all have been angry at someone else at some time in our lives. The pain of the situation, particularly if it involves someone we have cared deeply about who has bitterly disappointed us. Imagine how God felt when Lucifer blasphemed Him the way he did.
When facing anger, it is necessary for us to remember the will of God as stated in MT 5: 48, “You must be perfect-just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Now, that’s a tall order, but it is His will. I have often spoken about “koininea,” that supernatural and intimate bond that exists between ourselves, other believers and God. It is because of that relationship that God has put us together in congregations. The trite phrase, “love the sinner, but hate the sin,” has real value in our lives. God, through Paul, elaborates on this in PHIL 2: 3-8, “Do not do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. And look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own. The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had: He always had the nature of God, but He did not think that by force He should try to become equal with God. Instead of this, of His own fee will He gave up all He had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like man and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death-His death on the cross.” When we will take the anger we feel toward another to the Lord in prayer, our Jehovah Raah, our Shepherd, will grant us freedom from this friction in our lives.
PRAYER: O Lord, there are times when we feel anger toward others and when they do wrong to us. We are sorely tempted at those times to exact retribution, be verbally or otherwise abusive, to hold grudges against them, and to engage in behavior that does not honor You. Because of Your love for us, You have given us clear explanations of Your will in these matters in the Scriptures. But that is not all You do for us. You also open Your arms to us and ask us to place our burdens on Your ample shoulders. In MT 11: 28-30, Your Son reminds us: “Come to Me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke and put it on you, and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in Spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I give you is easy, and the burden I put on you is light.” You know the pain and disappointment of human conflicts because of your own with Satan. In You, we can be victorious over ungodliness, knowing that one day not too long from now You will indeed put an end to evil altogether. We humbly approach You in adoration to say, “You deserve all our trust, obedience, honor, glory, loyalty, praise, and thanks for being the guiding, loving, patient, compassionate, and kind Source of all that is good in our lives.” In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will finish up our look at Jehovah Raah in the context of how He gives us freedom from pests. If there is time, we will also begin looking at Him as Jehovah Shalom, God is peace. As believers who practice our faith, we are covered by a blanket of God’s love against all of the work of the devil. This blanket is not just to protect us, but it is to equip us with the weapons against spiritual warfare that we need. One of those weapons is God’s assurance that He has fitted us for victory and that His power to bring His will about is greater than the adversary’s. That comforts and encourages us in our faith, even when the going gets rough as it does when we are in conflict with other people. It is one of many manifestations of the love our Abba has for us. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn