One Sunday, a couple of years ago (2018), Ben and Jackee Belnap noticed an important envelope containing $1,060 mysteriously missing. For the previous year, University of Utah football fans had been saving money to pay back Ben's parents for season tickets, and that money was in the envelope.
Ben and Jackee started tearing the house apart searching for the cash. “I'm digging through the trash,” Ben Belnap said, “and Jackee hollers, ‘I found it.’” It was in the shredder in a thousand tiny pieces. Immediately they knew Leo, their 2-year-old, was the culprit. He had been helping Jackee shred junk mail and documents. Apparently, he thought he was being helpful with the envelope full of cash. First, his mother cried. Then, she laughed. She said, “As devastated and as sick as we were, this was one of those moments where you just have to laugh.”
Soon after that, Ben Belnap contacted the Treasury Department, which has a “Mutilated Currency Division.” They “redeem” burned, rodent-chewed, or deteriorated money as a free service to the public. They handle 30,000 claims a year, redeeming more than $30 million in mutilated cash. They told Ben to send the shredded money to Washington in Ziploc bags.
In the meantime, Mom did not let Leo use the shredder anymore, making the comment that “this will make a great wedding story one day.” (Meagan Flynn, “A 2-year-old shredded $1,060 of his family’s cash. His mom cried — until she laughed,” The Washington Post, 10-5-18; www.PreachingToday.com)
On this Mother’s Day, you have to appreciate Jackee’s response to her son’s mishap, but you have to cry when you think about how much our culture has shredded the values we hold dear.
Thankfully, redemption is possible through Jesus Christ, who delights in redeeming mutilated lives, families, and whole cultures. He can redeem your shredded life, and He can use you to bring redemption to your shredded culture.
The question is How? How can God use the likes of you and me to put a broken world back together. Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Judges 4, Judges 4, where we see how God used “a mother in Israel” to restore her nation during one of the darkest periods of Israel’s history.
Judges 4:1-3 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, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. 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. (ESV)
After 80 years of peace, Israel is in trouble again, because they turned against the Lord. Now, they face a powerful enemy, who cruelly oppresses them for 20 years.
Judges 4:4-5 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. (ESV)
Notice two aspects about Deborah’s role in Israel. She’s a prophetess and a judge. She declares God’s Word and then applies that Word to the disputes people bring to her. In Judges 5:7, she calls herself simply “a mother in Israel.” Here, she sits under a tree in south-central Israel. Yet her influence extends to the entire nation! That’s because she speaks with God’s voice and authority.
She proclaims the Word of God, and that’s what you must do if you want God to use you to put a broken world back together.
PROCLAIM THE WORD OF GOD.
Don’t tell people what YOU think; tell people what GOD says. Share God’s Word with those who come to you for advice, because “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and... spirit... discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). The power is in God’s Word, not your word.
In More Jesus, Less Religion, Steve Arterburn writes:
Some time ago, I read about the work of a Wycliffe Bible translator in a remote village in Papua New Guinea. When the opening chapters of Genesis were first translated into the native language, the attitude toward women in the tribe changed overnight. They had not realized or understood that the woman had been specially formed out of the side of the man. Without even hearing this concept developed, these people immediately grasped the ideas of equality between the sexes and began adjusting their behavior. The people heard. They believed. They obeyed. They changed. Just like that.
That change doesn't mean everyone in the tribe immediately came to faith in Christ, however. While they immediately recognized the respect God has for both men and women, the members of this tribe had their own hard-to-abandon gods and superstitions. One of their practices was to spit on the wounds of the sick. Their medicine men were known as the spitters, and they did not want someone like Jesus to take away their status in the village.
However, the attitude changed as more of the Bible was translated into the tribe's dialect. When translators read the passage where Jesus cured a blind man in a most unusual way, the medicine men pricked up their ears. The Master spit on the ground, made a paste of mud, put it on the man's eyelids, told him to wash it off—and the man was healed. When these tribesmen heard this story in their own language, they saw that Jesus was not against them, but for them. They found one of their own, a Savior who was also a spitter! And they came to the Lord because of this connection. (Steve Arterburn and Jack Felton, More Jesus, Less Religion, Sisters, Oregon: Waterbrook Press, 2000, p.116; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the power of God’s Word. You don’t have to explain it or defend it. Just share it whenever God gives you an opportunity, and He will use it to change lives and whole cultures.
That, of course, means you have to know it and apply it to your own life.
Harriet Tubman was a spy who, even in moments of extreme danger, demonstrated nothing but raw, calm courage. Born into slavery in the 1820s, Harriet was nearly killed when her master hurled a metal object at her. She staged a daring escape in 1849, then spent years rescuing hundreds out of slavery and leading them to safety. Her code name was Moses, because she never lost a single escapee. During the Civil War, she became a secret agent for the Union Army, working behind enemy lines to scout out the territory. Despite a bounty on her head, she always managed to evade capture.
A devout follower of Christ, Tubman spent much time learning, memorizing, and meditating on various verses in the Bible, such as her favorite Isaiah 16:3: “Hide the fugitives, do not betray the refugees.” As she pondered the passages, she turned them into prayers, and in prayer she learned to practice God's presence.
“I prayed all the time,” she told her biographer, “about my work, everywhere; I was always talking to the Lord. When I went to the horse trough to wash my face and took up the water in my hands, I said, ‘Oh, Lord, wash me, make me clean.’ When I took up the towel to wipe my face and hands, I cried, ‘Oh, Lord, for Jesus' sake, wipe away all my sins!’ When I took up the broom and began to sweep, I groaned, ‘Oh, Lord, whatsoever sin there be in my heart, sweep it out, Lord, clear and clean.’” (Robert J. Morgan, Moments of Reflection: Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation, Thomas Nelson, 2017, pages 1-2; www.PreacingToday.com)
Harriet Tubman saturated herself with God’s Word, building a mind-set that transcended her background and transformed her life. Not only that, God used her to transform an entire culture, which in her day treated some people as less than human.
God can do the same for you if you let His Word change your own life first, and then share it with others so it can change them, as well. If you want God to use you to put a broken world back together, first , Proclaim His Word. Then...
PROVOKE TRUST IN THAT WORD.
Incite people to believe in God’s Word. Rouse them to rely on God’s promises and obey God’s commands.
That’s what Deborah did. Her name means “honeybee;” and like a honeybee, she provided the sweet nectar of God’s Word (Psalm 19:10; 119:103), but she also had a stinger – she could needle people into action.
Judges 4:6-7 She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?” (ESV)
The Israelites and the Canaanites lived together in the land with the Canaanites generally controlling the valleys and the Israelites the hill country. So God told General Barak to gather 10,000 Israelite troops on Mount Tabor. Now, the region around Mount Tabor was relatively accessible to chariots, so the mere presence of 10,000 Israelites on the mountain would more than suffice to “lure” Sisera to the region (Walter Elwell, Evangelical Commentary on the Bible).
That was God’s battle plan, but Barak was afraid of Sisera’s 900 iron chariots. So Deborah reminds Barak of what God had said, trying to prod him into action. How does Barak respond?
Judges 4:8-9 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. (ESV)
Barak, Israel’s general, needs a woman to hold his hand. It was a disgrace to him, who will now get no credit for winning the battle. That credit will go to a woman.
Judges 4:10-11 And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him. Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh. (ESV)
Kadesh is near the field of battle, and Heber’s wife will play a key role in the upcoming battle.
Judges 4:12-16 When Sisera was told that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, Sisera called out all his chariots, 900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon. And Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which the LORD has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the LORD go out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. And Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot. And Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left. (ESV)
God kept His Word and gave Barak complete victory! The next chapter fills in the details, telling us that God sent a storm and a flash flood, which flooded the Kishon River and swamped the iron chariots. Through Deborah’s prodding, Barak gained the faith to act on God’s Word (Hebrews 11:32), and God acted on his behalf. Even so, Barak will get no credit for the victory.
Judges 4:17 But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. (ESV)
The Kenites were allies with the Canaanites. They were under a treaty of peace with each other, so Sisera would feel safe with this Kenite family.
Judges 4:18-21 And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. And he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. And he said to her, “Stand at the opening of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say, ‘No.’ ” But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. (ESV)
Bedouin women had the task of pitching the tents, so she was an expert with a tent peg (F. D. Lindsey, BKC), which she used to treacherously kill Sisera.
Judges 4:22 And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went in to her tent, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple. (ESV)
Normally, the winning general would slay the losing general and get the glory for the win himself, but Jael gets that honor. She had slain the losing general with a tent peg. She didn’t slay him with a sword, a warrior’s weapon. She slew him with a simple household utensil, and Barak is disgraced. A woman gets credit for the win just as Deborah had predicted. In fact, TWO women get credit for the win: Deborah, who instigated the battle; and Jael, who finished it.
Judges 4:23-24 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. (ESV)
God delivered Israel from Canaanite oppression, and He used two women to do it!
In describing Deborah’s role, Walter Elwell says, “She speaks with God’s voice and authority to a major military leader. At her instigation, tribes which would otherwise quickly fade into insignificance mount a major attack against the Canaanites” (Walter Elwell, Evangelical Commentary on the Bible).
God used Deborah to put her broken world back together. All she did was proclaim God’s Word and provoke trust in that Word. My dear friends, if you want God to use you to put your world back together, do what Deborah did. Prod people to trust and obey God’s Word.
On Jude 12, 1890, Winston Churchill was 15 years old and a student at Harrow School when his mother, Jennie Churchill, wrote him a letter. This is what she wrote:
Dearest Winston,
…I have much to say to you, I’m afraid not of a pleasant nature. You know darling how I hate to find fault with you, but I can’t help myself this time… Your report which I enclose is as you will see a very bad one. You work in such a fitful inharmonious way, that you are bound to come out last—look at your place in the form! Your father and I are both more disappointed than we can say, that you are not able to go up for your preliminary exam: I daresay you have a thousand excuses for not doing so—but there the fact remains…
Dearest Winston you make me very unhappy… My only consolation is that your conduct is good and you are an affectionate son—but your work is an insult to your intelligence. If you would only trace out a plan of action for yourself and carry it out and be determined to do so—I am sure you could accomplish anything you wished. It is that thoughtlessness of yours which is your greatest enemy…
I will say no more now—but Winston you are old enough to see how serious this is to you—and how the next year or two and the use you make of them, will affect your whole life—stop and think it out for yourself and take a good pull before it is too late. You know dearest boy that I will always help you all I can.
Your loving but distressed Mother (David Lough, My Darling Winston: The Letters Between Winston Churchill and His Mother, Pegasus Books, 2018; www.PreachingToday.com)
God used Jennie Churchill to provoke her son, who later became prime minister of Great Britain and led the country to victory during World War II against Nazi oppression. It didn’t take much – just a loving mother expressing her concern, speaking the truth in love to a son, who had become lazy in his schoolwork.
Don’t be afraid to do the same IN love to those YOU love. If you want God to use you to put your broken world back together, proclaim His Word, provoke trust in that Word. Then finally...
PRAISE THE LORD!
Give God all the glory for any victory you experience. Give credit to where credit is due, not to your own ingenuity and strength, but to the Lord, who is powerful to save all who put their trust in Him. If you want God to restore your world, point people to Him.
That’s what Deborah does in Judges 5. The whole chapter is her hymn of praise, giving God all the glory! Even though she is a prophetess and a judge in Israel, she describes herself simply as “a mother in Israel” (vs.7). She diminishes her role and magnifies God’s part in the victory. In verses 1-11, Deborah issues a call to praise. In verses 12-18, Deborah puts together a catalogue of people, who joined her in battle and those who didn’t. Then in verses 19-31, Deborah describes the conquest in its particulars. And through it all, she points people to the Lord, to whom she credits the victory.
You do the same if you want God to use you to restore your world. Point people to Him. Praise and magnify the Lord.
John Piper puts it this way: “There are two kinds of magnifying: microscope magnifying and telescope magnifying. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is.”
Piper says, “We are not called to be microscopes. We are called to be telescopes. Christians are not called to be con men who magnify their product out of all proportion to reality, when they know the competitor’s product is far superior. There is nothing and nobody superior to God. And so the calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. That’s why we exist, why we were saved, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, ‘You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.’
“The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God.” (John Piper, “How to Magnify God,” DesiringGod.org, 11-27-12; www.PreachingToday.com)
Praise and magnify the Lord in all that you say and do.
Just this last March (2020), Dr. Francis Collins, who is the National Institute of Health director, described his journey from atheism to faith in Christ. As a medical student, Collins found himself moving from agnostic to atheist. Collins said, “I would have challenged anybody who wanted to have some discussion about God. I would have asserted they were basically stuck in some past era of supernaturalism that is no longer necessary because science has eliminated the need for it.” But the time came as a third-year medical student when he found himself sitting at the bedside of people who had terrible illnesses that physicians were unable to help.
Dr. Collins said, “Watching those individuals… at the end of their lives, I was trying to imagine what I would do in that circumstance. Many of these people were deeply committed to faith. I was unsettled to see how they approached the end of life. This was something that I personally was pretty terrified about. They had peace, and even a sort of sense of joyfulness that there was something beyond.”
Collins described one patient he had gotten pretty attached to:
“She suffered from advanced cardiac disease, which included episodes of daily crushing chest pain. And yet she came through this all with remarkable peace and was very comfortable sharing the reason for that with me, namely her faith in Jesus. She looked at me in a quizzical way and said, ‘You know, doctor… You have listened to me talk about my faith, but you never say anything. What do you believe?’ Just a very direct, very simple question, and it was like a thunderclap.” Collins says, “That was the most important question I've ever been asked.”
Collins later met a Methodist pastor, who introduced him to the work of C. S. Lewis, starting with Mere Christianity, and at age 27, Dr. Collins became a Christian. (Peter Wehner; “NIH Director: ‘We’re on an Exponential Curve,’” The Atlantic, 3-17-20; www.PreachingToday.com)
Now, he is in a place of huge world-wide influence as he directs the research into the Coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci actually works for him and is a close friend. God has given Dr. Collins a huge platform from which to share his faith, and it all started with a woman in severe pain, suffering from advance cardiac disease. She praised God in her pain and pointed her doctor to Jesus.
You do the same. Praise God even in your pain and point people to Jesus every chance you get.
If you want God to use you to restore your broken world, proclaim His Word; provoke trust in that Word; and praise the Lord. You don’t have to be polished or famous. You might just be “a mother in America,” but God can use you to change your world for the better. Please, commit your life to Him and let Him do it through you!
