Returning to normal?

Joshua 8; Psalm 139; Jeremiah 2; Matthew 16

A letter from a missionary requests prayer that the virus threat would soon be over so she can get back to work. People talk about a return to ‘normal’ meaning they want their lives to be what they were before this pandemic. This way of thinking reminds me of a noted Christian educator who said, “Christians deeply resist change — forgetting that is our destiny.”

Jeremiah spoke to a people who had abandoned God. They didn’t want change either. He said of their problems, “Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God, when he led you in the way?” (Jeremiah 2:17) This prophet went on:

“As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’ But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah. (Jeremiah 2:26–28)

This morning’s newspaper had pictures of people crowding beaches, going to parties, saying ‘no way’ to social distancing and to being careful . . . as the statistics are rising and thousands are getting this virus and dying. While we don’t like loss of control and our government telling us what to do, the Bible is clear: yield to God (totally) and obey the governing authorities even if they are doing a lousy job of it (in our opinion) for God has put them in place and to resist our leaders is to resist God. (See Romans 13). We want our way and resist change.

God doesn’t work the way we think He should. His priority is not my comfort. While He cares for me and wants to bless me, His priorities are revealed in Jesus Christ. This passage says much about the error of worshiping the good life, even of putting my priority on ‘normal’ and life itself:

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Matthew 16:21–26)

The things of man? Peter figured that of all people Jesus should not die. He was clueless about the plan of God to use the death of His only Son to change the world. Am I clueless about the purpose of Covid-19 in the plan of God? I hope not.

Come after Him and deny myself? Deny what? That could mean watching TV, eating too much dessert, loafing in the sun, all sorts of good life things, but Jesus says self-denial means my whole life. It means losing all desire and effort to gain the world — which Scripture defines as the “desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life.” (see 1 John 2:15-17). I’m asked to pray that things return to ‘normal’ but I don’t think so, not if normal means going back to the opposite of the will of God and enjoying what keeps me from putting Him first.

APPLY: Give up any idea that I or the rest of the world needs what we call normal when it includes that so-called freedom to do whatever we want. Romans 12:1-2 tells me to present my body as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable to Him for this is worship. I’m not to be conformed to this world/age but transformed. My thinking is to be like His thinking so I can discern His will and realize its perfection, that it is good. Woe to me should I ask Him to make life like it used to be when my destiny, and the destiny of the whole world, is change . . . change that glorifies God.

 

 

Does true wisdom even exist?

Leviticus 24; Psalm 31; Ecclesiastes 7; 2 Timothy 3

This pandemic and personal isolation is having a wide range of effects on people. Some are enjoying it as a ‘staycation’ while others are ‘losing their minds’ in extreme impatience for ‘normal’ life to return. For them, not being able to do whatever they want to do is an extreme hardship. Some even say this is like being in jail. At least one person said it was like being in a concentration camp.

I’m not sure what others are experiencing. For me, this is more like God pushed a reset button and sent me back into another era where people were not so busy and had time to play with their children, read books, and relax with a jigsaw puzzle. I know some are terribly anxious about running out of money (and toilet paper) and others are missing human contact and hugs to the point of being deeply agitated. Certainly our reactions expose our value systems!

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon recommends that people reflect on brevity of life and its meaning. He said a house of mourning should be preferred to a house of feasting meaning that sober reflection should be preferred to levity and that sorrow is better than laughter. His point is that sober reflection can lead to moral improvement and a changed life.

His words are similar to what Moses wrote: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) Our society has long valued a self-centered hedonism and this ‘reset button’ puts me into a place where I can more easily consider what are the most important things in life. Solomon’s advice is sharp:

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. (Ecclesiastes 7:8–10)

These days, just as in Solomon’s days, the temptation is to become impatient, angry, complaining and longing for the ‘good old days’ or at least ‘normal’ whatever that might mean. Some may even be proud that they are handling this isolation rather well, yet both extremes are contrary to Solomon’s reasoning. He says:

Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? (Ecclesiastes 7:13)

Considering what is happening, and in light of my strong belief in God’s sovereignty, I tend to welcome the reset button. God is calling me, and maybe the entire human race, to think more deeply about life, why I am here and about His control of things over my human efforts to control things.

My commentary says that even though people might find fault with what God has done, no one can change what He thinks is wrong or unfair. No one can straighten what He says is crooked. Besides that, He combines adversity and prosperity so we cannot discern the future. Far better to submit to and trust His sovereignty. That is, enjoy the good times and remember in the bad times that God has inscrutable purposes beyond finite human understanding. As Solomon said, no one is wise enough to understand God’s scheme of things. His purposes are “far off and deep, very deep” yet the struggles we have are not because God is doing what He does. That responsibility is our own:

See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. (Ecclesiastes 7:29)

In trying to have life the way I want it, my scheming results in ‘going off the rails’ into a perversion of the life that God intended for me. He pressed that reset button for good reason.

APPLY: I’ve begun to ask myself each day about the stuff on my to-do list. Does it matter? Will it last? Has it any eternal value? Will it help others? Will it glorify the Lord? This is not an excuse to fail to clean the bathroom or keep my home in order but taking to heart the wisdom God gave Solomon and Moses. I’ve supposed that no one wants to waste their life but now am not sure that is true. It so easily happens, even to those of us who try so hard to not waste anything.