Backwards Beatitudes

What do you really want this future leader to be like?

Happy are the self-willed for they shall build their own kingdom.

Happy are those who have no regrets, for they will be praised.

Happy are the self-confident, for they will get what they want.

Happy are those who hunger for self-fulfillment, for they will find it.

Happy are the ruthless, for they won’t let anyone hold them back.

Happy are those who are open, for they will see the value in every god.

Happy are the rebels for they will be called children of change.

Happy are you when everyone loves you, for then you will have freedom in this life.

These are the Beatitudes the world around us sings the praises of, yet deep down we know that they won’t ultimately keep you happy or fill your heart with joy.

Jesus’s beatitudes are far different, yet at the end of the day, they are far better.

Besides, let’s be honest. Do you really like that self-willed, rebel who only cares about getting what they want and don’t regret treating others badly?  

God sends all?

“I am the LORD, and there is no other. I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the LORD, am the one who does these things.” (Isaiah 46:6b-7)

 

On the night of 14 November 1940, three hundred German bombers dropped 500 tons of explosives, 33,000 incendiary bombs, and dozens of parachute mines on the industrial city of Coventry. During the raid, 507 civilians were killed and 420 seriously injured.[i]

It had been suggested that Winston Churchill knew that the attack was going to take place but keep it a secret so the Germans wouldn’t know the Allies had cracked their secret code. New research concludes this might not have been the case. However, I have to wonder, if Churchill did know for sure and did know that evacuating the town would have let the Germans know their code would have been cracked, would he have kept the secret?

I’m not a Churchill scholar but considering how many other times he had to sacrifice the lives of others to win the war, I would have said he probably would have. Think about it, D-Day was a victory, but it was also in many places a blood bath. I personally talked to a soldier who climbed the cliffs at Omaha Beach. He and two others were the only ones in his platoon to survive. Churchill and the Allies did all they could to prepare for the battle, but all the commanders knew they would lose a lot of men, and if something went wrong maybe even most of them. As it was 133,000 men invaded, with over 10,000 casualties.[ii]  Yet, they knew if the war was going to be won, they had to take the fight to the enemy.

Was it worth it? Yes, it was to the free world but to the families who lost one or more sons that day it was, to say the very least, horribly painful. In the end, God will judge the hearts of those involved, but to most of history, it seemed like the right call.

What does that have to do with the scripture I quoted?

We often want to protect God and remind people that God might allow things, but he doesn’t do them. However, God here and in other places doesn’t back down. He knows he has the power to stop bad things from happening so in one way he is responsible, but clearly, He believes the cost is worth it. That is uncomfortable. Emotionally speaking it seems cruel to say it. Just as it would have been cruel for me to say to that veteran, “it was worth, however, letting you watch your buddies die though.” Just to clarify, I didn’t say much during that discussion with that vet, I let him grieve.  In one very real way, to win the war, it was worth the loss, but on the day, I was talking to that vet, it didn’t feel like it to him.

God isn’t afraid to take responsibility. Yet, there are times in the scriptures he allows men and women to cry out in accusation, to question, and also to just be silent and allow the person to grieve. Jesus did weep with his friends at the death of Lazarus even though he knew the end of that story. In the time of pain, the knowledge that God could have stopped it doesn’t help. Yet, when we can think and reason clearly, we can trust that if God is allowing it there is a reason, even if we don’t like it at the time.

When it comes to dealing with people in grief, my advice is to listen to Paul and “weep with those who weep”[iii] and don’t try to give excuses or try and justify God. Just grieve with those who grieve and silently trust God has a plan.  

 

 

 

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[i] https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/myths/coventry-what-really-happened/

[ii] https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/online-documents/world-war-ii-d-day-invasion-normandy

[iii] Romans 12:15

God is our Helper, not our Genie.

 God is our refuge and strength,

always ready to help in times of trouble.

So we will not fear when earthquakes come

and the mountains crumble into the sea.

Let the oceans roar and foam.

Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! 

Ps. 46:1-3 NTL (emphasis added)

 

I was considering what constitutes help. A thief may consider help someone looking out for the cops. A person feeling the effects of withdrawal help might look like someone with a needle. To a firefighter help might be the person who tells them exactly where the trapped person is in the building. To a jury help may be the witness who gives them the right facts so they can render a just verdict. Help to a confused person might be just the right words to clear up the fog of confusion over an issue. Help for someone who doesn’t want to accept a truth might be a fake or misleading article.

 

Help really can mean a lot of different things. The difference as far as we might be as far as we are concerned is selfish and/or altruistic. In the example above the thief wants purely selfish help. The firefighter wants altruistic help. The juror wants help, that may actually be both, it helps him and justice.

 

God’s help isn’t greater because it always serves a greater good. We may not like the help God is offering right now, but ultimately Christians will. So believers, you don't need to be afraid. 

Jesus the Failure?

It might be funny to think that Jesus thought, He was a failure. Us? Sure, we mess up and there are times all of us feel as if what we do is meaningless. Consider these words from Isaiah:

 

He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, and you will bring me glory.”

I replied, “But my work seems so useless!

I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose.

Yet I leave it all in the LORD’s hand;

I will trust God for my reward.” Isaiah 49:3-4

 

These prophetic words are speaking to God's coming Messiah. Yet when we see Jesus, most can't imagine Jesus saying that His work seems useless. However, when Jesus is on the cross and cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." I clearly see it. At that moment, the Holy Spirit wasn't giving Jesus the supernatural ability to know things others couldn't know. He was facing agony and death alone. Yet we also see Him saying, "Into your hands, I commit my spirit." These verses show Jesus fulfilling these words but also walking as we often walk.

There are times when all of us feel as if what we are doing is ultimately going to be utterly useless. The truth is without God, they will be. Yet for those who trust God, we can leave all we do in God's hands, and He will reward us for our faithfulness even if no one else will. We might be tempted to laugh at the idea of an uncertain Jesus, but what He went through tell us we're not alone. Jesus knows what it feels like too.

Disgusting Miracles?

 

“After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.” John 9:6

 

Throughout the Bible, God uses unusual ways to get things done; crows to deliver food to Elijah, then later a widow woman with next to nothing to eat, a donkey to correct a Balaam, 300 to defeat a multitude, etc. There are a lot of them, some of them funny but most ironic is some way. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:27, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

Jesus takes it to a new extreme. Sometimes, it’s a little disgusting. You might find it humorous, or at least humorous that I get a little queasy thinking about it.

Consider this: “After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue” (Mark 7:33). Jesus stuck his fingers in the guy’s ears (didn’t wash them before or after, either), then spits (I’m assuming on his fingers). Finally, he touches the man’s tongue with fingers that were just in his ears and spit on. Yuk (for me at least).

Yes, I know there are reasons Jesus did what he did and that he was using the miracle as a parable but it is still unsettling for this guy’s weak stomach.

At the end of the day, I still trust God and if Jesus has to spit on me to be blessed then I need to be willing to accept it. 

An Eureka Moment (with a divine push)

EUREKA!

Gideon: A Case Study in Instruction - Judges 7 

 Have you ever been taught by someone who forces you to think things through and maybe when you think you have a plan, they take away something you were counting on using or said, "No, you have to do it without that?" I mean really teacher google isn't going away, why can't I use it? But no, they don't let you use the normal method.

If you have it can seem frustrating but if they are a great teacher, then when you get your eureka moment then everything is clear. Before then it is not fun, in fact, you might think that the teacher/professor is a bit of a sadist. He/She sits around trying to find ways to torment their students. Yes, there might be a few like that but thankfully only a few. Most honestly want their students to grow and learn to think for themselves. They also might be pushing them to think outside the box.  

Years later we might laugh about how our instructor pushed us but at the moment let's maybe not. This is what I see in this chapter. God is pushing Gideon to the correct answer. I didn't see this before, but it doesn't diminish the miracle at all as I see it, it reveals a God who loves us enough to push us to think for ourselves. Let's set the stage...

• A coalition of enemy nations has gathered to plunder Israel again.  
• Gideon gathers an army of 32,000 men to go against them (Side note: Israel is woefully outnumbered).
• God tells Gideon to let the fearful go home. 
• Now there are only 10,000 men left (It's going to be a slaughter for the Midianites). 
• God gives another test and Gideon is left with 300 men. 
• God tells Gideon if he's afraid to sneak down to the enemy camp. (Personally, at this point I would be looking up to God and saying, "Afraid? I'm terrified and now you want me, the guy who every Midianite wants to kill, to sneak down into their camp. ARE YOU? (Pause, deep breath) You're God, so okay, I’ll go.). 

The stage is set for Gideon. Is Gideon going to figure it out or well we know he will because it probably wouldn't have a story if he didn't. Gideon is down by the enemy camp and hears the enemy speaking of dreams that God is going to use Gideon to whip them out. In other words, the enemy is afraid. The enemy is expecting to lose. Yes, they have superior numbers and weapons, but they know they are going to lose. Gideon is shocked. This is news to him. Gideon thought he was the one who was going to lose. In fact, if he fights like everyone expects he will lose.

Eureka! Gideon has his epiphany.  Gideon remembers God's words that He would fight for them. Gideon doesn't have to fight. Gideon sees the army is looking for a reason to run and comes up with a plan to give them that reason. I would note here that the Bible doesn't say that God told Gideon what to do. However, God did place his student in the right place to discover the answer for himself and it was brilliant.   

An army expecting to see an enemy attack woke up to see foreigners around them. They were, after all, a coalition of foreign nations. When they were startled awake, they saw what they expected, foreign enemies. Once the chaos began it just grew. Those who might have had time to realize they were fighting their "allies" were confused by God. The armies, on seeing their "allies" attack their friends and comrades joined in the fighting. Those who survived this first wave of attacks were confused and afraid therefore ran away from the danger. Side note: It's easier to kill soldiers who are running rather than fighting you giving Gideon the day.

The truth is the miracle of this story is three-fold. First, an enemy who had no reason to believe they would lose actually did. Second, God put Gideon in a place where he had to think differently. Third, God prevented the Midianites from seeing their allies as allies. 

This might not be Ha, Ha funny, but it brings a smile to my face when I consider how God taught Gideon how to win an unwinnable battle.

Photo from https://unsplash.com/@mehedi192

How dumb do you think I am?

Didn't have a picture of a golden one.

Exodus 32:24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.’ When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire—and out came this calf!” NLT

Brothers have been known to, how shall I say this, "fib" to one another or exaggerate the truth a bit and maybe even lie. But who wants to get in trouble especially when it's your younger brother who's in charge? I have to believe that is what Arron was doing when he tried to explain away the golden calf he had made at the request of the people of Israel.

This excuse takes the cake. Who in the world is going to believe this, especially since everyone saw him doing the work. If I had been Moses I might have said, "Arron. just how dumb do you think I am?" 

Yes, they had both seen God do some pretty miraculous things since they had both heard the voice of God specifically say "Don't make an idol" I can't give Arron credence for trying to blame God for it. Which I really hope he wasn't trying to do. God knows.

Whatever the case this has to be the craziest excuse an adult has ever given. Or at least in the top ten.