I Will Strike The Shepherd
This quote belongs to Jesus from Matthew 26:31 and Mark 14:27 as he prepares his disciples for his coming demise at the hand of His father. It is God who will crucify the Christ.
Zechariah 13:7 "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!" declares the LORD Almighty. "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones. 8 In the whole land," declares the LORD, "two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it. 9 This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’"
I have stopped believing that in any way God promises to protect us from harm or provide for us what I / we would typically consider “best” in this world. I think this notion is a concoction of wishful thinking and homemade religion that we naturally resort to when scripture does not provide the type of comfort we long for.
We ought to listen carefully to the inner voice of self-deception that says, “God’s going to make my circumstances work out just fine.” That is not God’s voice, nor it is it his in this world. Though he is the one who can calm storms, his real goal is to get you to walk on water.
God has one ambition in mind for his believers, and that is to sanctify us. He protects us only from the condemnation that results from moral evil, not from it’s sting nor the deception and doubt that accompany it. Every day we are led into temptation. Every day we sin. Every day we die. My hope, any hope for this world, has all but dried up.
So what am I to do that would be healthier than simply trying to put a roof over my head while I am waiting to die, waiting to go to a place we were actually designed for, because we sure weren’t designed for this.
We’re sinning when we don’t even know it, being set up for loss the moment we think we have profited with any earthly gain. It seems the only happiness and mental-health to be found is that which is spawned from either self-deception or, or, or, entirely and only in the life to come, the joy of which we are afforded rare glimpses in whatever fleeting joys God allows us to briefly taste in the here and now. Whether it be in furniture, family or gazing at a cloud, which may, one day transport the saviour.
Truth is not necessarily healthy….
Ecclesiastes 1:18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
Not necessarily happy. Not necessarily popular. Not necessarily productive, helpful, constructive. Perhaps at times we can do nothing better than …
Ecclesiastes 2:24 …than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God.
Ecclesiastes 3:13 People should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
Ecclesiastes 5:18 Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life.
1 Timothy 6:17 God, richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
Life and its pleasures and the enjoyment they afford in this temporariness, are gifts from God.. They can be traced back to one who delights to do us good..
Jeremiah 32
38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them.
40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.
In the calm of even the worst storm, whatever loss has befallen you, take whatever pleasure he offers you, whatever legitimate reward he sanctions and savor it. Slowly! Thank him for it even if it only lasts a moment and know, one day, one day we will savor joy, savor him, uninterrupted, forever.
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3 comments:
OK Andy, help me understand this one?? What happened to "God wants us to be joyful" Isn't that what you have been preaching on? What am I missing. What about Psalm 27:13
13 I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING.
And what about "put on joy every morning"? If your hope for this world has all but dried up and if we only "are afforded rare glimpses in whatever fleeting joys God allows us to briefly taste in the here and now", how does that translate into be joyful in every circumstance?
You really are hurting my brain lately :)
This is Kimberly- still can't remember my password
The psalmist's confidence is that God will show himself as good. The goodness of the lord is precisely where he puts his confidence because his circumstances have proved to be completely unworty of such confidence.
Thus he is saying exactly what we need to hear. No confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the circumstances of this wold working out the way he wants, but complete confidence in the goodness of God /compassion/ faithfullness /presence / love and thus he is the one in whom i place ALL hope as the source of All joy.
This is the experience of some who lose everything except God.
Amen!! In the darkest hours God is the ONLY ONE who unfailingly loves us. He works in amazing ways when you put all your TRUST in him, even if it is just glimpses FOR NOW.
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