"O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home!
Before the hills in order stood, Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God, To endless years the same."
Since God is "our help in ages past, our hope for years to come," then we, as saved citizens of heaven from the Tribe of Africa, must be ever diligent in MAINTAINING OUR COVENANT RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR GOD.
Every created, living and vital organism and created thing NEEDS MAINTENANCE in order to keep functioning properly. Perhaps you will give your nod of approval to this assertion: If we fail to do maintenance on our cars, they shall soon cease to function; for a car is a created-thing. Cars require gas, water, oil and general tune-ups periodically. If we fail to maintain them, they shall cease to run. And the same is true of an authentic and attractive relationship between us and our awesome God. Our relationship must be consistently fine-tuned, kept in working order, daily nurtured, diligently maintained. In the words of Paul, we must be "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
And so, I strongly contend and affirm today that if there were ever a people who MUST maintain a strong and vital relationship with God it is that often marginalized, maligned and maltreated nation of saints, who are of African descent. For history and personal experience from day to day has taught us well that surely we have no other helper, friend, confidant, provider, champion and lover than God alone! He alone has been and is "our help in ages past, our hope for years to come."
But so often we do maintenance on secondary and inconsequential relationships and do not prioritize the maintenance of our relationship with God. For some strange reason, we have come to view relationships with people of money, might and means more significant than a relationship with God. For we strain up to maintain a good relationship with those who have money, capital and material possessions. We would rather give our money and allegiance to banks, loan companies, credit unions, malls and department stores than give God our tithes, offerings, time and temples. Our excuse for that course of action is this: "Well, you know I’ve GOT TO pay this! I GOT TO do this! I GOT TO take care of that!" But in reality, the only thing you really have to do is to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness"! I GOT TO GIVE GOD TOP PRIORITY! I GOT TO SERVE GOD! I GOT TO MAINTAIN MY RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD! THAT’S WHAT I GOT TO DO! THAT’S WHAT YOU GOT TO DO!
But when push comes to shove, we all know that God is the One who comes through for us! When, because of our displaced priorities, the people of money and means repossess their goods and dispossess us of things and wreak havoc on our emotional and spiritual state of mind and kick us to the curb for dead, we all know IT IS GOD WHO COMES TO OUR RESCUE. Yet, we oftentimes elevate secondary and inconsequential relationships above our relationship to God! Misplaced Priorities Rupture Vital Relationships!
And so, problems do and shall arise. Ruptures do and shall take place in our love/faith relationship with our God. Some synonyms for the word "Rupture" are BREAK, BREACH, BURSTING, DISRUPTION, FRACTURE, SPLIT and SEPARATION.
Have you ever been in a situation or relationship, the kind which you know something is WRONG, but you just can’t put your finger on the CAUSE of the problem? You know that a BREACH or BREAK has occurred. You sense a BURST in the bond of unity. You feel painfully the FRACTURE of faith and trust. You see the distance that SEPARATES you. But you don’t know the CAUSE. You seem to be at a loss as to the REASON. And so, you search for REASONS that would explain the RUPTURE in that RELATIONSHIP.
And it is at this point that our Text becomes relevant and practical. Because it gives us REAL REASONS FOR RUPTURED RELATIONSHIPS. And the operative word here is REAL. Real and not imagined. Real and not fake. Real and not counterfeit, fradulent or insincere. REAL REASONS FOR RUPTURED RELATIONSHIPS! And that is significant. That has relevant meaning. That has practical application. That has beneficial bearing on our bad behavior! Because I argue that if we are going to get at the ROOT of RUPTURED RELATIONSHIPS, WE MUST DIG FOR REAL REASONS!
I. And that leads me to submit, as my FIRST ARGUMENT, that WE MUST DIG BELOW THE SURFACE OF COUNTERFEIT CAUSES.
Sometimes we deny OUR problems by focusing on others instead of ourselves. We blame it on someone else. Blaming is a human sport. We play this blame-game all the time. We have become a people who assign blame and assess guilt, not on ourselves but on others! "I don’t have a problem" we say. "I may have a problem, but it’s not that serious," we say. "It’s those folks," we say. "He/she/they are the ones to blame," we say.
What we fail to understand is that assigning blame is different from understanding how our environment has affected our personality and emotions. The reason for probing the dynamics of our historical situation is not so we can blame others and abandon responsibility for our own actions. The purpose is to gain knowledge. We can get to know ourselves so we can effectively change OUR attitudes and OUR behavior.
Repairing ruptured relationship means taking responsibility for our own behavior. You may come from a severely dysfunctional family. Growing up in that family may have produced emotional scars. Some of the wounds still may be healing. And what you experienced may have damaged your view of yourself and your view of life. You may have developed addictions or controlling behaviors to cope with the pain you felt. These addictions and compulsions may have developed before you understood what was happening.
But being affected and even shaped by the past does not mean you should place responsibility for your behavior on someone else. WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR OWN ACTIONS! But so many times, WE BLAME OTHERS AROUND US INSTEAD OF OURSELVES!
We blame other human personalities around us, but also more importantly, WE BLAME GOD! That is the Counterfeit Cause which is being attacked in Verse 1 of our Text. Says the writer: "Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear ...." The inference the writer is attacking here is the Counterfeit Claim that the relationship is ruptured BECAUSE GOD IS HANDICAPPED! Listen to verse 1 again. "Behold, the LORD’S HAND is NOT shortened, that it cannot save; neither HIS EAR heavy, that it cannot hear ...." A "Shortened Hand" and a "Heavy Ear" seem to me to be Signs of BEING HANDICAPPED!
And even more enlightening is the literal rendering of the Hebrew text, for it reads: "Certainly NOT CUT OFF the LORD’S HAND so that He cannot save; and certainly NOT HEAVY HIS EAR so that He cannot hear ...." Again, a "CUT OFF HAND" and a "HEAVY EAR" seem to suggest to me HANDICAPPS!!!!
The inference being that the claimants allege that the LORD IS POWER-CHALLENGED, in that HE CANNOT SAVE, and that HE IS PRAYER-ANSWWERING CHALLENGED, in that HE CANNOT HEAR PRAYER. In other words, the inference is that GOD IS HANDICAPPED! He has A MAIMED HAND and AN IMPAIRED EAR!
Handicapped, in that, His HAND or ARM has been CUT OFF. That is, He has Lost His Hand; He cannot graps, hold, clutch, pick up, sustain, free, deliver, rescue or save because He does not have the use of His hand/arm. The inference is that GOD’S ABILITY OR POWER IS DEFICIENT, DIMINSHED, DISABLED, USELESS; He has become A DISABLED GOD; A POWERLESS POTENTATE. In other words, the inference is that GOD HAS A KNUB!!!
Handicapped again, in the sense that, HE HAS LOST HIS HEARING; He is HARD OF HEARING. That is, He has lost His acute ability to hear the faintest cry or the loudest scream. That he cannot respond to the cry of His people because He is Hearing Impaired. That He is a God who needs a Hearing Aid, or that His people must now learn Sign Language in order to communicate with Him. The inference is that GOD HAS A KNUB ARM AND A DEAF EAR!!!
Now as repulsive and utterly evil that may sound to us, the truth of teh matter is, that is the theological belief of many within the African American community. Scores of our brothers and sisters have come to believe that God is indeed Handicapped!
They cite instances of when they were in need of being rescued from an oppressive and racist regime, that they were left to die and fend for themselves. They claim that they bought in on that Non-Violence Thing and waited and waited for the Lord to intervene in their personal experience of injustice, but He never showed up. Or, if He did, His arm was too short to reach them. And so, they have concluded that GOD HAS A KNUB HAND! Their theological belief is that HIS POWER TO RESCUE, SAVE OR DELIVER IS INEFFECTUAL!
Others cite instances of when they earnestly and constantly prayed to the Lord for help, direction or instruction that they never received an answer to their prayers. They asked to be kept from going to jail, even though guilty as charged, but went there anyhow. They asked for x-amount of money and it never came. They asked that their girl-thing or boy-thing would not leave them but they left anyhow. They asked for that new car, that new house, that better paying job, but they got neither. They prayed for the health and recovery of a family member or friend but they died in spite of their prayers. They tried that prayer-thing and for them it didn’t work. So they concluded that God is either HARD OF HEARING OR IS DEAF!
From the pit of painful experiences, scores of brothers and sisters in the ’Hood’ of our Chocolate Cities are offering the Counterfeit Cause of A HANDICAPPED GOD. A GOD WITH A KNUB HAND AND A HEARING IMPEDIMENT! A GOD WHO IS POWER AND PRAYER-ANSWERING CHALLENGED!! They claim as their reason for not "doing religion or church" anymore is A HANDICAPPED GOD!!!
But if you notice in our text at verse 1 that this ’Seer of the Sovereign,’ this ’Interpreter of the Times,’ this ’Sage of the Savior,’ does not let this faulty kind of conjecture and reasoning stand. He seems to be saying that we need to reassess our position. For his argument is to contrary: "Behold, the Lord’s hand IS NOT SHORTENED, THAT IT CANNOT SAVE; NEITHER His ear heavy THAT IT CANNOT HEAR," he argues. That is not THE CAUSE OF RUPTURED RELATIONSHIPS. You need to Dig Below the Surface of Counterfeit Causes. He argues that THE REAL REASON FOR RUPTURED RELATIONSHIPS, in verse 2, is: "YOUR INIQUITIES HAVE SEPARATED BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR GOD, AND YOUR SINS HAVE HID HIS FACE FROM YOU, THAT HE WILL NOT HEAR."
II. And So, MY SECOND ARGUMENT IS, THE REAL REASON FOR RUPTURED RELATIONSHIP IS INDIVIDUAL ISSUES.
It is not A HANDICAPPED GOD, but UNRESOLVED INDIVIDUAL ISSUES that is the real reason for ruptured relationships. He keeps emphasizing phrases like "YOUR INIQUITIES" and "YOUR SINS". That’s PERSONAL AND INDIVIDUALIZED. Not His or Hers or Thiers; but YOUR!!! That emphasizes the fact that EACH OF US HAVE INDIVIDUAL ISSUES!
The word translated "iniquites" is the Hebrew word that means "to bend, curve, twist or distort." It is the word picture of a RIVER as it snakes along its course. In fact, its the word used for the River Avah. Avah mean to bend, curve, twist or distort. It is the nature of a river to bend, curve, twist and distort as it moves along.
Thus when applied to human personalities, it is a reference to OUR NATURE. By Nature we are Bent Toward Evil. We are Curved or Crooked in Character. Our mind, will and emotions are Twisted. Subsequently, we Distort Reality. We are Totally Depraved Creatures. And so, it is our Depravity as manifested in OUR Iniquities that is referred to here. And Iniquities are Inequalities, Injustices committed against other human beings. Thus, that which has caused Separations or Put Distances between us as a people and our God is OUR INJUSTICES DONE TO ONE ANOTHER. WE HAVE INIQUITY ISSUES!
Whenever we are unjust in our dealings with one another, we are putting distance between us and God. And the reason why we sometimes do not sense the nearness, the closeness of God is not because His Hand is shortened but that our iniquities are lengthened. Crimes against humanity, my friends, causes separations, divides us, causes a breach between us and our God. Says Jesus: "I was hungered, and you gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink: I was a stranger, and you took Me not in: naked, and you clothed Me not; sick and in prison, and you visited Me not ... Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to Me." And so, when or wherever I experience this sense of the far-awayness of God, I need to examine how I have treated other human personalities. For it is in proportion to my right treatment of other hurting human beings that I experience the nearness of God. If I want to experience the potent power of God’s deliverance, then let me "do justly and love mercy."
AND THE REASON FOR UNANSWERED PRAYER IS NOT A HEARING IMPAIRED GOD BUT OUR FAILURES. For that Second Verse says: "YOUR SINS HAVE HID HIS FACE FROM YOU, THAT HE WILL NOT HEAR." WE HAVE FAILURE ISSUES.
The word picture here painted is this: We keep on making mis-steps resulting in slipping, losing our balance and ultimately falling down. We keep falling down and falling down and falling down, and God gets tired of seeing it so He Covers His Face! Its as if either our constant falling down is too painful for Him to bear and so He Cover His Face, or else our constant falling down sickens, grieves or angers Him, and so out of disgust or disapproval He Covers His Face!
Thus, the reason we do not behold His Face and consequently have the assurance that He is hearing us is because of OUR OFTEN AND MANY FAILURES. Yes, I hear you saying, "We fall dowwn but we get up!" But falling down and getting back up with no repentance is the problem! Yes I know Donny McClurkin sings that "a saint is just a sinner who falls down and gets up." But the difference is in HOW HE GETS UP. A saint gets up thru Repentance. A sinner gets up thru his determination for being sorry that he/she was caught.
And may I suggest to us that God Hides His Face from us when:
We keep falling down in our Witness
We keep falling down in our Worship
We keep falling down in our Faithfulness
We keep falling down in our Giving
We keep falling down in our Committments
We keep falling down in our Covenant Relationship.
God Hides His Face when we keep:
Fumbling with our Faults
Playing in our Pits
Delighting in our Depression
Making Merry in our Misery
Meditating on our Melancholy
Frolicking in our Foolishness
Fantasizing in our Falling
Sporting in our Sins
GOD HIDES HIS FACE!
One prophet has even suggested that God is of "purer eyes than to behold evil, and connot look on iniquity ...."
Now since this thrice holy God could not look on His own sinless Son when He was being punished for crimes He did not commit, for sins He did not do but became a curse for us and sin for us when He hung on the tree, what makes us think for even a moment that this same God could look un us when we keep falling down in our mess, keep fumbling with our faults, keep frolicking in our foolishness! HE HIDES HIS FACE!!!
And when God Hides His Face, HE COVERS HIS EAR! He will NOT Answer Our Prayers! When God Hides His Faith-Giving Face, He Covers His Healing Hands and Prayer-Answering Ears!
So then, we must abandon this irrational theology of A HANDICAPPED GOD, and we Must Deal With OUR INDIVIDUAL ISSUES OF INIQUITIES AND FAILURES if we desire THE RESTORATION OF A RUPTURED RELATIONSHIP.
For this same God has given us His Conditions for the Restoration of a Ruptured Relationship. In one place He has said:
"If My people, which are called by My Name,
SHALL HUMBLE THEMSELVES, AND PRAY, AND SEEK
MY FACE, AND TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS:THEN
WILL I HEAR from heaven, and WILL FORGIVE THEIR
SIN, and will HEAL their land."
