Want to be a world-changer?

Judges 4; Jeremiah 17; Mark 3; Acts 8

Women in the kingdom of God are sometimes told that they cannot do certain things and must stick to their roles as wives and mothers. While raising children who know and love the Lord is a vital task, God sometimes uses women to do other great things. Deborah and Jael are examples.

And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera . . . . Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years. (Judges 4:1–3)

God heard their cries and sent Deborah, a prophetess and judge in Israel, to Barak, an army commander. He would not fight unless she went with him. She did, but slaying the enemy was the task given to Jael, another woman who feigned loyalty to Sisera then killed him. Two obedient women and an army did the job but God got the glory:

So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel. And the hand of the people of Israel pressed harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin king of Canaan. (Judges 4:23–24)

I’m learning the importance and consequences of obedience. The alternative is under a curse:

. . . “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:5–9)

The problem is that last line. I can be deceived by things outside of me like telemarketers, most of the junk posted on social media, even false teachers in the church, but my worst enemy is my own heart. I can stir up others to go to battle like Deborah did, but unlike her, forget to find out if that is God’s will or not. I’ve said many times that a strong ‘I want’ makes a person blind. It can also make me stay at home.

The most glaring examples of those ‘I wants’ were the people of Jesus’ day. Jesus was in the synagogue on the Sabbath and about to heal a man, but those watching were determined to accuse Him and destroy Him.

And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 3:5–6)

They were blind to His power and His identity, but the demons were not: “And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God.’” (Mark 3:11) However, his family said, “He is out of his mind.” (verse 21) and the religious leaders said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul and by the prince of demons he casts out the demon.” (verse 22) Trusting in their own ‘religious rules’ and personal judgments kept them from seeing the truth about Jesus — and about themselves.

A young man named Philip was not like that. He was traveling and God told him to “Go over and join this chariot” in which an Ethiopian court official was riding and reading the prophet Isaiah. After Philip explained it to him and shared the gospel, this man was saved and baptized. He went on his way — home to Africa to take the good news to his people. (Acts 8:26-40)

Do I really understand the far-reaching effects of obedience. Did Deborah realize her challenge to Barak would give their people forty years of rest? She did. Jeremiah also knew the importance of obedience; it would bring prosperity and fruitfulness to those who practiced it. Certainly, Jesus knew it. He did the will of God even in the face of severe criticism and misunderstanding. Philip also understood obedience yet maybe not the consequences of his time with that Ethiopian, a man outside his race and background. However, God used it to take His Word to another part of the world.

APPLY: Just do whatever God puts on my heart, without excuses, arguments, or questions. I may not see the results, but when God is in anything, big or small, there will be a chain-reaction.

God is not mocked

We joke in our family that “normal” is only a setting on the dryer. “Perfect” has to fall into the same category. As my mother would quip, “There ain’t no such thing.”

Even so, these verses describing the church sound really good: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” (Ephesians 2:19–21)

They give me an image of a solid structure that is unified and set apart to serve God. But if anyone is looking for a perfect church, they will be disappointed. Even in the beginning, the church was not the ideal. 

One of the first problems was a prideful couple who wanted to impress others with their generosity. They sold some property and gave some of the profit to the church. A partial donation was not a problem. What was a problem is that they told everyone that they had given ALL of the money.

Peter confronted the husband first. This man was so shocked that he died on the spot. Then his wife came in and Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”

She also immediately fell and died. The result was that “great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.” (Acts 5:9–11)

This story is horrifying. At first I thought Peter was much too harsh, but that reveals how my understanding of holiness is not even close to how Peter and the early church understood it. For them, lying to God and each other was dire sin. It was a lie to God and also broke the bond of unity that He had given them in Christ. This couple thought more about themselves than they did about that unity and holiness, and about the close fellowship of this body of believers.

This story also shows what God thinks about hypocrisy in His people, and even about any who claim to be His children but try to impress others by being loose with the truth. He had warned them for years about the importance of truth and the relationship of truth to knowing Him as their God: “Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity. Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:5–6)

God knows the root of such sin. It comes from a heart that is bent on doing its own thing, a heart that may be able to fool others, but He is not fooled or mocked. He says, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord . . . The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:5–9)

This couple paid a high price for their deception. If they were genuine in their faith, this sin was covered by the blood of Christ, but it still had consequences; they both died because of it. Their story may have been on Paul’s mind when he wrote, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

Purity in the church and in individual Christian lives is far more important than most Christians realize. As I read this, I’m thinking that I can never allow the abundance of God’s grace to be an excuse to let my pride and sinful old self be deceitful and mock God or His family, particularly in a silly effort to look better than I am.