Many times in our social existence we hear of strikes being called. Strikes have a definite adverse effect on all of us. Strikes can cripple us in our everyday living and we lost the benefits that we so often take for granted. Baseball has suffered through a strike, football has suffered through a strike, and hockey has suffered through a strike. There are airline strikes, telephone strikes, longshoremen strikes and transportation strikes. When there are no planes flying people are grounded and stranded. Whenever the telephone operators go on strike you cannot get through to long distance or dial 411 and for some it is hard to get through to the Psychic Hotline and talk to Miss Cleo. When the Longshoremen don’t to the piers, the good just sit on the shore or stay on the ships. Whenever those “18 wheelers” those tractor trailers are parked, it is hard to get vegetables and meats to the market. Whenever there is a impasse between management and labor…. a strike is called. When a strike is called no matter what type of strike it is, somebody suffers.
THERE ARE TIMES IN LIFE….WHEN WE TAKE SO MANY OF THE NATURAL BLESSINGS OF GOD FOR GRANTED…THAT WE TEND TO VOID OURSELVES OF THE BLESSINGS OF AIR, WATER AND THE LAND.
Our text directs us to that point for at any time we can be cut off, for the Scripture says: “If I shut up the heavens..” This signifies the possibility that God can. I have come to believe that we never stop to thank God for the simple things in life: the earth, the sunlight, the air we breathe, we just assume it will be there. Some of us are just going along our merry way not even thanking God for allowing us the very privilege of life.
And the question that arises from the text today is, WHAT IF GOD GOES ON STRIKE? What would happen if God decided to withhold from us the benefits of nature? How would you fare if God goes on strike? When viewed from the text, we can see how God does have the power to command or will a strike by the elements of nature.
EXPOSITION OF TEXT
Here in this pericope of scripture we have Solomon, son of David, realizing the blessing that he has. We see where has built a temple in Jerusalem and has prayed unto the Lord. A grand celebration was given and sacrifices were made, 120,000 sheep and 22,000 oxen, all given in sacrifice for all that God had done. In consideration for what God had allowed Solomon to do in the building of the temple at the summit on Mt. Moriah, Solomon was thankful to the Lord.
The temple was ever so glorious, full of finery from all around. The nails were made of fifty shekels of gold, the beams were made of gold, and cherubim all around made of gold…. Precious stones and gems decorated the temple. It was a pretty as pretty could be. The size and length of the temple was a great as great could be. In a modern day assessment the building was 660,000 cubic feet. It was a tall as it was wide. Imagine that if you will. It was glorious….brass pots and lamps lining the walls of the temple…..all for the glorification of God.
A lot of labor and effort went into the building of the house of God. In consideration for the task that he was able to do, Solomon never forgot that it was God who allowed him to get from the foundation to the temple. The effort and the energy that it took to complete it was nothing more than the Lord blessing him. For the Word tells us, “except the Lord build a house…we labor in vain.” We see here Solomon in his prayer offering thanks to God for the blessing of the completion of the temple.
In all of his praying, in all of his ceremonial celebration, Solomon waited for an answer from the Lord. The Chronicle writer states in verse 1 that “The Lord’s glory filled the temple.” The Lord heard Solomon’s prayer. God’s presence filled the temple and the people were in awe of the presence of God. And then the writer says, “The Lord appeared unto Solomon and said, Solomon, I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land or send pestilence among my people; if my people who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” You see God was concerned about the plight of the people with whom a covenant had been made. God wanted them to know that He was still God above everything and anyone else. Israel had a penchant for turning away from God each time He had blessed them. They were easily persuaded into serving other gods, and they were quick to forget how good God had been to them. Oh how often we too forget how good God has been to us.
The proclamation made to Solomon is one that was firm and a strong warning to Israel to remain faithful to God. For if Israel remained faithful to the covenant, God would continue to bless them. But if they were unfaithful in their ways, God would ultimately destroy Israel. God would withhold the blessings they had been receiving. God in his withholding could go on strike.
POINTS FROM THE TEXT
The text provides for us some interesting revelations. Lets take a look and see what the Word reveals.
POINT #1 The first revelation is that God has all power in His hands and under His control, and God alone can direct His will whatever way He pleases. God has the power to will a strike by the elements of nature. The text points to that fact for it reads, “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people” God has the power to direct His will toward us. God could shut off the supply line from heaven and we would be in turmoil. If God held back the rain there would be no snow or water, no flowers in your garden, no crops, no collard greens, snap beans, or butterbeans, no tomatoes, and sure n’nuff no corn. God could give his order to the sun to cut off the heat supply. There would be no sun to brighten our day, no sun to give us warmth on winter’s coldest day. If God held back the sun, there would be no rays to melt the snowcaps on mountains, and we wouldn’t have water flowing down to streams, streams flowing out to lakes, lakes flowing out to rivers, rivers flowing out to oceans and we wouldn’t have water flowing through pipelines to drink, and we would all die of thirst. IF GOD GOES ON STRIKE. If God decided to withhold what He controls…and God is in control of everything…we wouldn’t have the cattle grazing on a thousand hills, the birds in the air, the harvest in the fields. If God goes on strike, He could hold back the day and hold back the night, hold back the air you are breathing right now, God could turn off the oxygen supply until every breath is gone, he could hold back our heartbeat, hold back the flow of blood I our veins. God could hold back everything I tell ya….
As we look out at humankind today, we see our economy and yes some of our lives in bad shape. We are in a sad situation. We see the condition of the world in bad shape: there is hunger in Africa, disease in Somalia, war in Afghanistan, homelessness, racism, depression, drugs on our streets, crime in all our cities and no jobs. We are in bad shape. The ground is poisoned, water is tainted, the air is polluted, mountains don’t have minerals, and the earth does not deliver as it once did. And we need to know this morning how do we regain the blessing that God withholds?
Now understand the state that we are in is not because of bad management, for Management has done all it could do to make things good for us. The state that we’re in is because of the laborers. Somewhere along the way, the laborers have not lived up to the conditions of the contract. Somewhere along the way some of the rules and regulations (commandments) that govern us have not been followed. When this division occurs, this odds between He who controls and those that receive, a strike can occur.
And the question this morning is what if God…who is High Level Management….decided he was tired of the sinful way of man. What if God decided that he was tired of man’s inhumanity to himself..and was tired of man’s sinfulness? What if God decided that we would no longer receive our daily blessings? In other words….what would happen if God decided to cut off the channels of communications to us?
POINT #2 Now this leads me to another revelation from the text and that is, God always has his communication channels tuned in to our prayer. God listens to the prayers we pray. The Chronicle writer lifts it up and says: “The Lord appeared unto Solomon and said, “I have heard thy prayer and this house shall be a house of sacrifice unto myself.” (KJV)
All too often we wish for things and hope for things, but far too little of us buttress our hopes and wishes in the power of prayer. Prayer lifted up causes God to bow down with a listening ear, prayer is the heart’s sincerest desire. Prayer at its highest is asking God where we stand with him and asking Him for intercession on our behalf. Prayer causes joy in the weary worn and sad. Prayer brings happiness to lowly souls, prayer brings healing to the sick. If we pray…..God listens and will answer, God heard Solomon’s prayer. And I have found that God still answers prayer.
And while we are journeying this morning, we see in this strike scenario, this withholding of our blessings that it requires something on our part in return in order to receive the blessings.
POINT #3 We need to humble ourselves and pray, seek the Lord and turn from our wicked ways. We are living in an age whereby people have turned away from God and are going their own ways and doing their own thing. The ravages of sin are all around us. We are living in a time where sin is all around us: there is sexual perverseness in our homes, in our schools and yes in our churches, there is child abuse, wife abuse and drug abuse. Crime is being committed from the White House to your house, from back streets to Main Streets. With all God has blessed us with, mankind has come up short each and every time.
We are destroying the environment and destroying each other. A whole lot of folk are losing out in life because of sin. God wants us to turn from our wicked ways and to seek Him. And we must do so by humbling ourselves.
As I see it in the Word….God promises that if we make the move towards Him, that a blessing will occur….and He alone can rescind the order for a strike. For the writer picks it up and says….”God will forgive our sin and will heal the land.”
Just as God said to Solomon and to Israel, I will be your God and you shall be my people. I hear those words again echoing in my ear. God wants us to be a faithful people. If we are faithful God will send the blessings. If you are faithful God will send the blessings for He is still in the blessing business….
And I am so glad this morning…that God didn’t go on strike. For if God had gone on strike, when I woke up this morning…just about the break of day, I began to see the daylight peeping over from the balcony of eternity…and I was able to say “Thank you Lord…for another day…. I’m so glad that He didn’t go on strike. If God…..had gone on strike…early this morning…when I got up to pray…I wouldn’t have the blood running warm in my veins….I wouldn’t have the articulation of my speech…if God had gone on strike. If God had gone on strike….early…this morning….when I went to the spigot…to get some water…God had already put the wet in water..and it flowed through faucet. And then…then…then…when I sat down to the breakfast table and I said, “Humble our hearts and pardon our sins….and make us worthy…for these and all other blessings, I had food to eat. But if God had gone on strike ….I wouldn’t have been able to grace the food that He put on my table.
Everything that we have…everything we receive comes from the Lord. Everything we have are blessings from God. The Lord has brought us from a mighty long ways….. But if God had gone on strike…I don’t know where we would be. As a matter of fact the Lord is blessing me and he’s blessing you right now…..
Just as Israel was obedient to God’s will and received the blessings of god, we too must strive to continue to receive the blessings from God.
There is one more thing you need to know on the journey this morning. There is a remedy to this whole strike scenario. Do you want to know the remedy? The remedy is that is there is some hope and help in this strike situation. There is a remedy and a resolution to this strike scenario….oh yes there is…. You see in every strike situation, no matter how hotly contested the issues are, no matter how difficult the negotiations, there is always one person that can help to normalize the relationship and situation that exist between management and labor.
There is always the Mediator… the one who knows what the problems are…someone who has been among the laborers and knows what the laborers are like. Someone that is appointed as a representative…someone who goes to management and stands…to insure that Management has a listening ear. Someone that the laborers cause and plea is protected. The Mediator also knows what Management desires…and the Mediator knows what it takes to please Management. The Mediator also looks out for the needs of Management. The Mediator works… to insure Management is pleased…and that the laborers do their part to insure that the partnership is made right.
Just….just….as God made a commitment to Solomon…to insure that the partnership was right…God made a commitment to all of humankind to insure that our partnership was made right.
CLOSE
God sent Jesus…as the Mediator…..who was summoned and elected for the cause of humankind. He was chosen and appointed to bridge the gap…. between God and man…..He stands between earth and eternity to plead our case. He knows the desires of Management because He at one time was a part of Management for He told the world….”I and my Father are one…”
Yes…..He came….across the nine month sea of time…..to insure that the partnership was right. He came across 42 generations….He came…and rested on the bosom of a mother without a father….
They hung him high and stretched him wide…they laid him in the grave…he told death I’m just here for a weekend reservation…..and I heard him tell death I just here to get the victory…..and on that third day morning….He got up….with all power….in his hands…..because it was given unto him..in heaven and in earth. And that meant that God didn’t go on strike…..
Be faithful….stay humble….and keep seeking the Lord’s face…and one when life’s journey is ended….we shall receive the benefits of a lasting partnership….a partnership that will last throughout eternity…I’m so glad that God hasn’t gone on strike……
