August 16, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, there they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one desired to travel through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.” (Zechariah 7.14)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Yesterday, I was reflecting on how the “people” had made the land in which they were living so desolate. The summation was because they had not kept the commands in their hearts. They protected the form of faithfulness but not the function nor the spirit of faithfulness. They surrendered their faithfulness to the futility which they experienced in the world. In doing this, they defined their spiritual reality by a worldly connotation. It had nothing to do with keeping their faith in God but in measuring their lives by the context of the world around them. Their motions of faithfulness to God, which were empty, became the expressions of the emotions toward God, which were meaningless. Have you experienced such “desolation” in your lives, mighty ones of God? Have you longed for the prosperity of life to be the definition of who you are? If nothing else is learned from the story of Job, it would be that “possessions are not nine-tenths of the law” when it comes to defining who we are.

Cases in point from Luke 15: 99 sheep paled in comparison to the one lost sheep; nine lost coins paled in comparison to the one lost coin; and one lost son deserved equal favor with the one who was “in the house” but not in terms of wealth but in being “in the house.” It is that “one” portion which truly defines who we are in this world as in the next. It is that “one portion” which became the cause of celebration for the end of the drought of desolation and desecration. Traveling through the gospels of Jesus Christ, we will continue to see the call to such “oneness.” Throughout the letters of the apostles to the first century Church there are the reminders of such “oneness.” As Jesus gathered with His disciples in the Upper Room for a final meal that side of the cross, He spoke to them of their “oneness” with Him as He Himself was “one” with the Father. The consequence of that “oneness” was an inseparable unity with God and humanity. Jesus reconciled what was lost so that it would be found again. It was through the due diligence of the good shepherd which brought the lost sheep back to the fold. It was through the due diligence of the yet-to-be married woman which found the lost coin and restored it to its place for her future union. It was through the due diligence of the father who trusted in what he had taught his sons that kept the door open and the light burning so that the son who was “lost” would find his way home not matter how distant he had become. It was not the prosperity that was celebrated but the understanding of “what was truly important.”

There is that other story which I have mentioned previously that becomes visible to us as we reflect upon Zechariah 7. It is the story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus to seek the true definition of his life which would confirm its eternal blessing. We noticed in that story that Jesus called to mind only portions of the Law and not the whole of it. He met the young man where he was in order to bring him back to the opportunity to do what was right. What was right was not something new. It was a truth which had always existed. Indeed it was the very foundation of all life if it were not only set in place but kept in place. Like the “stone which the builders rejected,” it was the trusting in one’s faith in God which was, is and will always be true definition of who and whose we are. The same conundrum was confronted by God for the men from Bethel. Go back and read the first seven verses of chapter 7 and watch the scene unfold and its similarity to the story I just mentioned. The men came to ask if they needed to continue to mourn and fast in the fifth month. God replied, “What was your intention when you fasted in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years?” Actually, the practice had been prescribed since the exile had begun that there should be fasts in the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months. God only mentions two of the four (as Jesus only mentioned five of the ten commandments) and the men had reduced it to one (as the young ruler was left with just one thing to do). What was the “one” thing critical to the understanding in both situations? It was the spirit of intentionality by which they had completed their actions or were challenged to do so. The young ruler was confronted with giving up all he had and take up one thing, his cross, in order to grasp what he truly wanted. It was having faith in that “one thing” which he could not do because the whole of what he had seemed greater. Did he truly believe in “eternal life” in the first place? What of the men from Bethel who came to inquire about the fifth month fast? Had they conveniently forgotten about the other three? Observe the timing of their conversation. They came to inquire of the priests in the “ninth” month. This means that the fasts of the fourth, fifth and seventh months had already passed. Even more surprisingly, the tenth month fast was just one month away. Does this logic sound familiar? If I can discount one thing, am I able to disqualify the rest? Like children they did not ask what was truly on their mind. Could it have been that they wanted to be forgiven the obligation of the tenth month fast? Did it seem reasonable to put aside the fasts of mourning and longing for the restoration of that which was lost when the doors of opportunity for reconciliation had been opened? Were they instead saying, “Do we have to keep doing what the law has required for seventy years now that we are past the seventy years?” Is there a “statute of limitations” on being faithful? After all, the current conflict was not about the exiles returning but the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple. For God, the real issue was about a heart that wanted to accept minimal accountabilities for greater expectations. In truth, these men from Bethel were representatives of the true spirit and intention of those left behind and perhaps of those who had been returned. God said it clearly “Didn’t you do these things as excuses to self-soothe with feasts and celebrations pretending to be holy and righteous?” It was because you failed to hear what the prophets said was a problem (a wrong attitude of fulfilling the Law) and instead trusted only in yourselves. You wanted all the benefits but not at the expense of personal accountability and effort. For the young ruler it was “Go, sell all you have and follow Me.” For the men of Bethel it may have sounded like “Now that the exile is done can we feel okay in keeping the party spirit instead of letting the spirit lead as it always was intended to?” They were sowing emptiness and they reaped emptiness. What had gotten them into their current situation was now a way of life which they didn’t want to lose nor confront for transformation. They wanted to maintain the status quo instead of striving for the place God intended them to be and to become. Jesus would declare in the marketplace just beyond the Holy of Holies in the Temple square “You have turned a holy place of prayer for all of God’s people into a den of thieves and robbers.” Because they conformed to the ways of the world, Jesus left their condition that day in desolation because of the desecration of what should be holy, righteous and the good will of God.

Mighty ones of God, why are we doing what we are doing in the name of God to demonstrate our faith and faithfulness? Is it to maintain our relationship with God before all the world or to put the world before God? As it said in the Decalogue “I AM, the Lord your God, one God and a jealous God and you should have no other gods before Me!” Hear, o Israel and the rest of the world, too, before it is too late and the utter desolation comes when the dust of the earth settles.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.