Obediah 1 As I’m reading through all the prophets and their messages of doom (and the occasional glimmer of hope) it’s easy for me to wonder what on earth I can learn from it. And then today, as I read a commentary on Obediah, it smacked me in the face! OUCH! The man who wrote the commentary points out that the struggle between Israel and Edom (of whom Obediah speaks) is an ancient one that originated in the struggle between Jacob and Esau! That this struggle is symbolic of the struggle between the Spirit and the flesh. This fleshly part is pride. That’s what the Bible says was Esau’s problem, and it’s ours too. I read that and kept going filing it away as interesting. Until I read: one way it might be expressed is in self-sufficiency… Bam! That caught my attention! This is something I struggle with constantly! It’s also an area of my life that I feel God has been working on for a while through all these financial issues. My first thought when there’s a problem is, “how can I fix this?” And there’s that self-sufficiency rearing its ugly head. I had never connected that with pride until now. So, that right there put the whole thing in perspective. I asked God to speak to me this morning, and man, did He ever! To a great degree, the struggles of the past year make sense. It’s the eternal struggle between Jacob and Esau, Israel and Edom, Spirit and flesh (pride). I am getting a little better about the self-sufficiency thing. Not so much because it’s second nature, but more because God has removed my ability to be self-sufficient. Most times there’s nothing I can do but trust that He’ll take care of things. Self-sufficient is itself an interesting term. Self – that’s me, me, me (the essence of pride). Sufficient – that’s the ability to be enough. God says His grace is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9). Paul hopes that his courage will be sufficient so he won’t disgrace his Lord (Phil. 1:20). 2 Corinthians 3:5 says that “our sufficiency is from God.” So when we believe we are enough by ourselves or in ourselves, we shut out God and make ourselves higher than He is. What a mistake that is! Every time I’ve done this, I’ve found that I’m not everything I’ve made myself out to be, and the consequences of my pride are pretty ugly. So what can I learn from all these prophets? I look for the metaphor. And realizing that I fall victim to pride (my flesh) I can learn to recognize those moments of self-sufficiency so I can stop trying to play God and let God be exalted and sufficient for me. And hopefully, sooner rather than later, I’ll get better at this lesson.
Joshua 22:34 The people of Reuben and Gad named the altar “Witness” for they said, “It is a witness between us and them that the Lord is our God, too.” The tribes of Reuben and Gad were separated from the rest of Israel by the Jordan River and they built an altar on their side so that their descendants would know that they, too, had the right to worship God. The other 10 tribes thought they had built an altar to worship at, which was not allowed. They were afraid that Reuben and Gad were sinning and would bring trouble on the entire nation. But once Reuben and Gad explained why they had made the altar, they were satisfied that the two tribes weren’t worshiping God in a place outside His temple and were keeping the covenant. So Reuben and Gad named the altar witness to remind them all that God was also their God, even though they were separated from the other 10 tribes by the river. What do I have in my life as a witness that God is my God? We don’t build things symbolically too often, but our altars are perhaps more telling… Our lives. Do I stand as a witness by the things I do in my life? Are my actions and words a reminder that God is my God? Sure, I could wear a pretty necklace with a cross on it, but these days that’s pretty meaningless to most people. But, really, is there anything in my life that stands as witness? I could find an object to symbolize the relationship so that every time I saw it I would remember that He is my God. Or, I could have a relationship with Him and each morning when I spend time with Him that could be my reminder that He is my God. There’s not a right answer to this since everyone is different. It’s just an interesting question….