Speak up? Or Shut up?

READ Ezekiel 17–20

Sometimes human sinfulness distresses me deeply. I understand the OT prophets who rebuked God’s people for their failure to obey Him, but I also understand my own propensity to fail the Lord’s will. His enablement is available through Christ yet when I thoughtlessly ‘do my own thing,’ my actions no doubt distress others too.

God told His prophets to speak His will and thoughts about sin. While I realize my sins are forgiven in Christ, but know I and other Christians still commit them, what a dishonor to the power of God. If another believer is disobeying God, do I speak up? Or shut up? Or pray? Or all of the above? Galatians 6 helps, but is something like standing in the middle of a teeter-totter and not knowing what way it will tip:

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. (Galatians 6:1–4)

Ezekiel knew the challenges. He had to tell the people they were unjust in their ways, yet they said it was God who is unjust. God answered:

Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? (Ezekiel 18:25–29)

Spiritual blindness and the power of ‘I want what I want’ brought them into condemnation. Therefore God answered, “I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways . . . . Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone . . . . so turn, and live.” (18:30–32)

He used the prophet’s words, stories and allegories, even reviewing their history, “But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. None of them cast away the detestable things . . . nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt . . . . I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them . . . . I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.”

His review of how He rescued them did not stop their sin. He reviewed all He had done: leading them in the wilderness, giving them His covenant with promises, signs and wonders, yet “the house of Israel rebelled against me . . . . did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules” and profaned His Sabbaths. He did not allow them into the land He promised “for their heart went after their idols.” Yet He did not make a full end of them.

Still, their children rebelled too, with the same attitude and actions. He said he would “scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries” and disciplined them “that they might know that I am the Lord.” (20:8–26)

Even as the Lord God tells the prophet to convey His judgments and tell how He will purge out the rebels, He also adds His promise that they “will know that I am the Lord.”

I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations . . . . And you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed . . . . when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds . . . . (20:33–44)

I sense that unless God tells me to speak (with words that fit Galatians 6), I must keep praying that He will manifest His holiness as He sees fit and deal with His children according to His name’s sake. May all of us honor Him — all who know He is the Lord.

 

Building endurance

Our conversation Sunday turned to the topic of health. (It almost always does if those talking are over sixty!) The doctor in the group mentioned the value of vitamin D. I piped up in agreement and boasted I had only one cold in twenty years. Make that two. I came down with a sore throat the next day and am coughing today.

Being a firm believer that nothing happens coincidently or randomly, I’m paying attention to the Holy Spirit even in the midst of my pity-party. He has a few reminders for me.

The first one is don’t boast without giving glory to God. Vitamin D is great stuff, but it is God who sovereignly controls my health. The principle is in these verses:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (James 4:13–17)

I should have said, “I take the vitamin every day, but it is God who keeps me healthy” or kept my mouth shut.

The next lesson is about suffering. In our culture, comfort is a high priority, so much so that most Christians ask God to fix anything and everything that makes them uncomfortable, particularly illness. However, James says this about any sort of suffering:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2–4)

Steadfast endurance is from a Greek word that means the power to withstand hardship or stress; especially the inward fortitude necessary. It is not a normal human trait. Consider a baby with an empty tummy or a full diaper! Consider most people with any sort of hardship or stress. It is usually met with complaining, grumbling or a self-produced grin-and-bear-it resignation. None of these compare with what God can produce if we let steadfastness do its work. He has in mind a calm acceptance and trust something like my mom often said, “We must need it or we wouldn’t be getting it.”

Her words teach me to accept and trust God for most things that come my way. I’ve often prayed, “Lord, if this is from You, I will accept it and learn from it. If not, You know what to do.” Most of the time “this” is quickly gone, but not always. Even an ordinary cold can teach me patience. This lesson is summed up in these words:

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits (like focusing on comfort rather than obedience), since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. (2 Timothy 2:3–4, addition is mine)

Another lesson is simple: pay attention to what my body is telling me. When I’m tired, don’t stay up late. Eat properly. Drink enough water. Quit trying to be super woman. Just because God promises to take care of me does not mean I can do whatever people half my age and with a normal heart can do. Duh. Taking the love of God for granted is not a bad thing unless it means listening to the enemy . . .

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” (Matthew 4:5–7)

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Lord Jesus, You are my Savior and Lord. Sometimes my biggest need is being saved from myself. I accept this rather small trial as Your way to build endurance in my life and to reinforce the above lessons. Thank You for making use of even the dumb things I do and say and using ALL things for my good, even a common cold.

Today’s thankful list . . .

Forgiveness for every time I forget or neglect what I already know.

For the hundreds of firefighters and others who were there when the towers came down.

Tests that build endurance.

God’s amazing care for my family.

A nice warm home and a frig full of food.

A nice nap.

Zucchini muffins.