In Jesus Holy Name August 18, 2013
Text: Hebrews 12:12a Redeemer
“The Digital Cloud? The Divine Cloud?”
In Which do you Place Your Trust?
Some say that when Steve Jobs created Apple, he changed our world. First the MAC, then iPads, iPhones, and now we all can have “apps” by the thousands. We have Twitter, Facebook….. and Linkedin…. Which I still don’t understand.
When I visited the doctor this past week he wrote all my information on a computer…. Now my medical records are stored electronically. Stored somewhere in a thing called the “Cloud.” How many of you purchase books on your Kindle, or iPad from Amazon? Then at the top there is a little note that states my books are stored in the “Cloud”. What is that? Where is that? And yet I trust that my books are safe.
Oh, yes there is that recent National Security Agency problem where the government has built a giant storage facility in Utah. The Utah Data Center, also known as the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cyber security Initiative Data Center, is a data storage facility for the United States Intelligence Community that is designed to store extremely large amounts of data. Is that the “Cloud”?
I know that the data center is able to process "all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Internet searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—----parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital 'pocket litter', bank records, medical and SS records. Electronic data. Well it has to be stored somewhere. I guess I can trust the “Cloud”.
Everyday people go to their personal “temple” attached to their keyboard. We write our thoughts, prayers, share our concerns & business, knowing that there is a “digital Cloud”, somewhere holding our information. So we are trusting the “Cloud”!
Recently Apple issued a warning. Customers who were using a GPS national park hiking trails “app” on their iPhones were warned about some serious “glitches.” In several national parks the identified trailhead, the mileages, and the directional guides . . . all were completely off. Several hikers got seriously lost because they trusted downloaded trail information that was fatally flawed. Those hikers had faith in the electronic guidance their hiking “app” had given them. But that faith was rewarded with a “wandering in the wilderness” experience.
If truth be told, we don’t take much “on faith” anymore — or do we? Let’s be more precise: We don’t take much “on faith” anymore at least from human sources. Anything a politician or a government bureaucrat or a corporate CEO or now even an athlete says and swears is immediately suspicious and suspect. Network media, government warnings and recommendations of professionals like doctors, lawyers, financial advisors, tarot card readers — these days we take them all with a hefty helping of salt.
But as the emergency Apple “app” warning revealed, we do seem to place faith in our electronics. We have more faith in Artificial Intelligence than human intelligence. We input all of our most private information — personal, financial, medical, emotional, and we trust that it is safely stored away. We routinely hit “send”…. secure in our faith that our message will go swiftly to its appointed destination without interception or invasion. We trust our family trips to a GPS screen and a very kind computer-generated voice will correctly tell us where to go.
What would you do today if your GPS suddenly instructed you to drive your car around the beltway seven times, honking your horn all along the way? What if your GPS insisted this was the only way to reach your desired destination? Would you “have faith” and follow directions?
Doubt it! Yet that is what Joshua did.
When the Israelites fled from Pharaoh’s pursuing army 40 years before and followed Moses’ lead right into the Red Sea, they saw the “cloud”. Despite the fact that the faithlessness of that same group will cost them forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the Hebrews’ author chooses to highlight their one united exhibition of faith — their plunge into the waters of the sea because the “divine cloud” hid them from the Egyptian.
The Cloud. The Cloud… The Divine Cloud came to rest in the temple in Jerusalem.
But in today’s bible ready in Hebrews it is that degree of faith that the author holds up as part of our great “cloud of witnesses.” At Jericho Joshua got some pretty bizarre sounding instructions from God. He and the people were to stomp around the city seven times while blowing horns and then culminate the march by gathering their voices together in one big shout-out. This was the divine answer to toppling the walled fortress city of Jericho.
Joshua and the Israelites had lived a hard scrabble life. Forty years wandering in the wilderness. Generations of slavery in Egypt. They knew it took a fight to defeat might. Yet they responded and obeyed those weird words out of faith in the God who had delivered them from slavery and promised them a future.
Faith in God. How did they arrive at that faith? Experience
Exodus 13:21-21
Exodus 33:7-12
Exodus 40:17-19, 34-35 They trusted the Divine Cloud.
I Kings 8:10-12
Where is God?
When Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees regarding the disciples eating grain on the Sabbath he responds by saying:
“I am the Lord of the Sabbath and one greater than the Temple is here in your midst.” (Matthew 12:12,6-7)
The Divine Cloud of the Old Testament was now standing in from of them in the person of Jesus….The “Cloud” had moved from the temple to the person who was healing the blind, curing the lame, raising the dead….but what was their response?
Matthew 12:14 “they plotted how to kill him.”
We are encouraged to be faithful as we run our “race that is set before us.” This is a “race” that has already been won. Jesus has won the victory over sin and death and as such is the “pioneer” of perfected faithfulness, the first to be welcomed into the full presence of God.
The “race” Jesus ran ahead of us took him to the cross, to what looked to the world like utter defeat. But his faithfulness took him to the ultimate victory — to “his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” It is into holy presence that the faithfulness of all followers will ultimately take them.
Each day, you and I break God's commandments and transgress. Even the best of us have hearts which are envious, adulterous, murderous, and idolatrous. We have, both willingly and unwittingly fallen victim to Satan's temptations. The prince of darkness, the father of lies, holds out this thingamabob or we simply have to have it, will sell our souls to get it. We will compromise what we know is right; we will concede our integrity; we will cooperate with evil; doing anything and everything to get what we want. Which is why we need Jesus who, for our salvation, refused to compromise, concede, or cooperate with evil.
So we might be saved, Jesus, with single-minded purpose, sacrificed His life. The Gospels tell the Savior's story. They speak of how Jesus, with crucifixion being the alternative, still refused to be crowned king by a crowd which had become enamored of His ability to feed them. They tell of how Jesus didn't seek the approval and acceptance of the wise and rich who came to hear Him. Read the narrative of His life. You will see how His best friends ignored His requests for prayer support and deserted Him; how a trusted student sold Him to His enemies for a few coins of silver; how the leaders of His church which best knew the signs which spoke of His coming, who understood the predictions He made about His death and resurrection, still felt it their duty to arrest Him, bring in witnesses to lie about Him, and unfairly condemn Him to death.
So the Lord might never have to say, "I told you so," so He might give you the path to go, Jesus was denied justice and condemned to a cross. So you might know just how much God loves you, Jesus allowed Himself, yes, allowed Himself to be crucified. The Savior didn't hang on that cross for hours because He was frail and feeble. He didn't die because He had suddenly grown fragile and faint. Jesus willingly and voluntarily gave up His earthly life so you might have eternal life, so all who believe on Him as their Savior might be forgiven of their sins and be saved. And this, dear listener, is not just wishful thinking on my part. So everyone, including you might know everything Jesus said about Himself and the Father's love was true, Jesus rose from the dead. The numerous appearances of a living Lord are irrefutable, incontrovertible evidence that our heavenly Father “The Divine Cloud”, good, and gracious enough to be trusted.
The divine cloud of the O.T. became visible in the person of Jesus. Daily we are invited to place our faith in the Divine Cloud. Step in line…. Follow Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and Joshua, and by God’s grace your own parents and grandparents part of that great cloud of witnesses. Run your race… fix your eyes on the Divine Cloud.
