What is it with God?
It never ceases to amaze me the type of people God uses for great purpose
I would have expected the most gifted, handsome, athletic, warrior, intellectual and generally those that reflected his perfection to project that “Look at me I’m right with God” persona to make us all feel our failures and turn
But that it seems is not Gods way
The saying is “God moves in mysterious ways” could be translate to “God does not move as mans ways”
God is God so lets look a a few of his chosen ones to learn a bit more of his character and use that to strengthen our walk and help us reach out to those hurting, those broken, those still needing to hear the God news of Gods love, Gods offer to save and transform.
Genesis 32; 21 - 31 Jacob Wrestles With God
Jacob had an interesting relationship with his brother Esau
Firstly he managed to take his birth right as first born of Isaac for a blow of stew
Then he tricked his dying Farther into believing he was Esau and got his Farther to bless him and basically give him his brother inheritance and his right to the covenant from God
Because of their history Esau wanted to kill Jacob so Jacob fled
In the years that passed Jacob he acquired two Wives, several children and was wealth in terms of animals and servants by various cunning ways and “creative” means
The night when he wrestled was the night before he returned to the land were Esau lived
The land promised to his Fathers family by God the promised land given to Abraham, the covenant passed on to Isaac then taken from Esau by Jacob
So here was Jacob on the eve of entering his fulfilment, his promised land, does he just rush in a claim it all
No fearful of his brother he sends his servants ahead of him with his animals in several groups crossing the river to hopefully pacify his brother, then he sends his wives and children and then there is Jacob alone on the banks of the Jabbok
That night he gets a visitor some say an Angel, some say God and clearly a messenger of the divine purpose for Jacob and the covenant of his inheritance
Jacob then wrestles through the night a fight starting in darkness and alone and ending in the light with God
Have you ever had a fight in the dark alone?
This is the story of Jacobs salvation his transformation by the presence of God, but note it does not just happen it is a grapple it is if you like an act of relationship from God a process tailored in this case for Jacob but with a message for us all
If we want to reach our promised land the land and person God promises he will make us into then we need to be prepared to let go
Let go of our ways, dependency on our strength our perception of our perfection and turn to God to allow him to strip always all from us that is not of him to transform us, to take us from darkness to light
We can do this by turning to Jesus, just as we are and give our selves to him, then the Holy Spirit will start this transformation process as it is said from the inside to the out, sanctify us, making us holy like Jesus
At the end of his fight Jacob demands a bless and gets a new name Israel this is God giving Jacob the right to the covenant given to Abraham
This is the God whom told Moses he can be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
God put Jacobs name in the place of honour once Jacob had surrendered to God and allowed his purpose his will to be done
Think what we might gain when we surrender to God, before I gave my live to Jesus all I could think of was the things I would lose, but after turning to Jesus I realised they were worthless things in comparison
So even one who would trick and steal from his own family can be made right with God
Who next well moving on in the Biblical chronology lets consider Moses.
Exodus 3: 1 - 15: Moses and the Burning Bush
Moses a Hebrew by birth but raised as an Egyptian noble a member of the royal house a prince of Egypt
At 40 years went to his people is Egypt and interceded when he saw an Egyptian slave master beating an Israelite slave, it went badly and Moses basically murdered the Egyptian
Moses fled after he realised that his crime was known and the Israelites did not thank him for it
For 40 years he lived as a desert nomad, a Sheppard to sheep till one day he saw a burning bush and had the God encounter we read about
The rest is history, Moses turned and followed Gods lead, did all that was asked from him and became a friend of God, lead the nation of Israel from slavery to the borders of the promised land, through signs and wonders through trial and anguish but stayed faithful, humble and well loved by God
Could you consider God using a murderer on the surface of things this might seem an insurmountable barrier after all God said to Moses "You shall not murder”, it is one of the commandments
Yet it came to the people of Israel via a person whom had committed murder
But then consider which of us have not broken one of the commandments in thought or deed, which of us have not sinned?
Certainly not me I can tell you, God knows the wrongs we all do, knows the sin as it is called, the filth if you like that covers us
But thank God he does not judge us for these things for if he did who could stand
If he did what hope would we have, we to should not judge others we need to act like God did toward Moses, towards us, looking into our hearts seeing what we are really like not what acts we have done but seeing the good that we could do the rightness within us the love and compassion, the true treasures of God.
So we should take hope in the what God used Moses, don’t let the lies of the Devil handcuff you to your past, break free turn to Jesus and let him wash you clean of the filth the things in your life that make you feel broken, unclean and unloved and God does love you, he can make you whole and clean if you let him if you want to meet with him
Then God knows what you might do living our his purposes in you life, you will find your promised land and you may take many with you to!
1 Samuel 16: 1 - 16:Samuel Anoints David
David Gods chosen one, chosen because “But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
So God knew David’s heart and loved it
David anointed to be king of Israel
David who killed Goliath, killed many of Israel’s enemies a warrior
As Eugene Peterson observes “There is not the slightest effort given in the biblical story to make David admirable in any moral or spiritual sense…The life of David is a labyrinth of ambiguities, not unlike our own.”
David’s prayers can be seen in the psalms, prayer I would say of an imperfect man a man often crying out to God for forgiveness and help, a man with a heart open to God, but not a perfect heart
A man who was a sinner, committed adultery, murder and the like
But a man who did not hide his sin from God turn to God for help to take care of it, to stop pretending he was perfect and rely on God, asking God for a new heart to be kept in his presence and not to have the Holy Sprit removed to be washed clean as we read in psalm 51: 9 - 12 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Peterson observed further “The story of David is not a story of what God wants us to be, but a story of God working with the raw material of our lives as he finds us” and he also then writes “Naivety regarding sin is dangerous as we follow Jesus, but an obsession with sin is decidedly unhealthy. It is Gods business to take care of the sin; our business is with God as he does his work in and with us.”
God hates the sin but loves the sinner, we should do the same, we can take hope from the life of David that God loves us enough to come into our lives to take care of the sin, this he did through his son Jesus and we can turn to him and receive the forgiveness of all of our sins, not so were can go on sinning but so we can allow Jesus to turn our lives around as we follow him.
Jesus does not take the elite most holy of holy folk, he takes all including the sinful broken ones we can then take on his perfection in exchange for our filthy rags.
Acts 9; 1 - 15: Sauls conversion to Paul
Saul the Pharisees of the Pharisees by his own confession is first encountered in the Bible at the scene of Stephens stoning and killing, basically the organiser and sanctioned that act
Saul who had a religious zeal against the Christians against the then followers of Jesus, imprisoning them, killing and hunting them down
Just the kind of kind of person you would want as a church member!
Yet, even while he was still in murderous pursuit of the Jesus believes, he meets with Jesus is a powerful encounter which turns him from Saul to Paul from non believer to the believer that eventually penned half of the new testament from hater of Jesus to lover, follower, disciple, apostle and defender of the Church
Paul who carried Jesus light to the gentiles and paid the price in beatings, stoning, shipwrecks, imprisonment and finally crucifixion
Paul who was passionate to run the race for Jesus whatever the cost
Paul who declared in his second letter to the Corinthians “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness”
This great man of God did not want to Lord it over others saying look at me who great I am, no he pointed to God saying in spite of my weakness look what the I AM can do through me
So as we think of Pauls example what can God do through us in our weakness in our failures.
US (you and me)
So what of US and God, we who give our live to Jesus mostly say we want to be like Jesus
So we need to learn from the examples of Jacob, Moses, David and Paul – we need to let God deal with our sins, that’s a key requirement, sin entangles us, we can’t run a race in that condition
Equally we cannot serve God crushed under burdens from our past
We cannot serve God in our future if we keep living in our past
As A.W.Tozer said “a growing Christian must have at his roots the life-giving waters of penitence. The cultivation of a penitential spirit is absolutely essential to spiritual progress. The lives of great saints teach us that self-distrust is vital to godliness. Even while the obedient soul lies prostrate before God, or goes on in reverent obedience convinced that he is carrying out the will of God with a perfect conscience, he will yet feel a sense of utter brokenness and a deep consciousness that he is still far from being what he ought to be. This is one of the many paradoxical situations in which the humble man will find himself as he follows on to know the Lord.”
We need to find our promised land the spiritual treasure that is our when we accept Jesus, the deliverance of from sins, the constant flow of the Holy Spirit transforming us, the fullness of Christian service as we give ourselves to others as Jesus did and awareness of the presence of God through our worship and walk with him, as we are lead to our promised land not by our strength, not by our greatness, not by our perception of who we think we are, but by a loving Father who knows to well who and what we are but loves us and cares for us still
Consider 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (New International Version)
17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Final lessons;
From Jacob’s example we see that God will not let us just be as we want to be in our own strength, pride and will. God has other plans a perfect plan for us actually and before we enter into his promises we need to surrender even if we fight back God will not let go or give up until he brings us to that place were we surrender let go of us and let God be God, then we can walk in God’s purpose, if like me and Jacob perhaps with a limp to remind us that our ways are not always Gods
From Moses example we see that God can free us from our past, no matter what we have done it is for God to judge us and we might not walk free but we can be made right with God to follow his purposes for our lives and the lives of those we meet
From David’s example we see that we should not pretend with God we cannot claim to be perfect, we must be honest and let God in to our lives, let him deal with our sin and take the raw material of our lives to work it as he would will
From Pauls example we see that God can use our weakness for his greatness in fact it is the greatness of God that this is so, so relax don’t worry about a thing because God can and will make things right if we let him
Question what will people say from our example?
Let us remember that God can make even the greatest of sinners the greatest of saints and its not four us to judge but to bring Jesus as Jesus was brought to us, lets us lift the bread and wine and sing the song of reconciliation as we walk this earth following him who saves
Lets pray this day to ask to be washed clean anew, to be given that new heart to be restored and to confess to God that we surrender all and we want God to be God over all of the parts of our lives, to finally pray Your will be done.
Amen.
