Bargaining with God

Although it's possible to find instances in the Bible where people successfully "bargained" with God, unless we're very sure of right standing with Him, it's not really a good idea. Pharaoh of Egypt demonstrates this.

Moses and Aaron appeared before the ruler to inform him that God wanted His people to travel a three-day journey into the wilderness to hold a festival in His honor. "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go."

Pharaoh adamantly refused, even when the men demonstrated their authority by turning Aaron's staff into a serpent and causing the water in the Nile and everywhere else to become blood. But the king's magicians were able to conjure up both these signs, and he was implacable. The two called up frogs from the Nile to swarm the land—even in the ovens and kneading bowls and beds. Ugh! The magicians were able to bring up the frogs too, except there's no record that they could control the creatures and herd them back into the river! When Moses cried out to the Lord, though, the frogs all died and created a terrible stench! Was Pharaoh now persuaded? No way.

Next, gnats (or lice?) infested the entire land, covering animals and people alike. Ugh! The magicians couldn't create living things and had to declare, "This is the finger of God!" Their confession did not move Pharaoh however; he was as hard-hearted and hard-headed as before.

The two men warned Pharaoh of the next disaster to come: flies filling the houses of the Egyptians and covering the ground. Ugh! But this time, a distinction was made. Miraculously there were no flies where the people of God lived. They were spared, while the whole land of Egypt was thrown into chaos by the swarms of flies. At this, Pharaoh relented and
4 began to bargain.

“All right! Go ahead and offer sacrifices to your God,” he said.
4 “But do it here in this land.” But Moses insisted that wouldn't work. The Egyptians detested the sacrifices to God and might stone the people as they worshipped. "We must take a three-day trip into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, just as he has commanded us.”

Pharaoh offered his second bargaining chip. “All right, go ahead,” Pharaoh replied. “I will let you go into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God.
4 But don’t go too far away. Now hurry and pray for me.” But no sooner were the flies gone than the king became stubborn again.

It took a deadly disease attacking the Egyptian livestock, festering boils breaking out on people and animals alike, and devastating hail that destroyed the ripening crops and the trees in the land to convince Pharaoh that he had sinned. However, once the disease abated, the boils dried up, and the hail and thunder stopped, he refused again to let the people go.

Locusts descended on the land, devouring whatever was left of plants and trees. One could not even see the ground, the swarm was so great. They overran the palaces and all the homes in Egypt. Ugh! “All right, go and worship the Lord your God. But who exactly will be going with you?”

Moses told him, “We will all go—young and old, our sons and daughters, and our flocks and herds. We must all join together in celebrating a festival to the Lord.”

Pharaoh retorted, “The Lord will certainly need to be with you if I let you take your little ones! I can see through your evil plan.
4 Never! Only the men may go and worship the Lord, since that is what you requested.” And he threw them out of the palace. As soon as the locusts were gone, he again refused his permission to leave.

Darkness came over the land, darkness so thick that you could feel it, and people scarcely moved for three days because it was impossible to see. Finally Pharaoh called for the men, “Go and worship the Lord,” he said.
4 “But leave your flocks and herds here. You may even take your little ones with you.”

Moses told him that all the livestock must go also—not a hoof left behind—and furthermore, the ruler must provide additional animals for sacrifices and burnt offerings to the Lord! Pharaoh was enraged. He yelled at Moses, "Get out of here! I’m warning you: never let me see your face again or you're dead!”

Pharaoh was out of chances. The death angel visited every Egyptian family from the palace to the prison, taking the life of every firstborn son. Even the first in the barns and sheep pens died. During the night Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron once more. “Get out!” he ordered. “Leave my people—and take the rest of the Israelites with you! Go and worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you said, and be gone.

4 Go, but bless me as you leave.”

You know the disastrous end of Pharaoh, his troops, his horses and chariots—all drowned in the Red Sea. He thought he would pursue the Israelites and make them return to slavery. He changed his mind one last time to his own destruction. He had bargained with God once too many times.

But we would not be so foolish--

Would we?

MaryMartha

The story of the Exodus is found in the book of Exodus, chapters 7-14. I have used some verses from the New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.

Art from http://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/pictures

Things Mama Taught Me: "If It Weren't for Grace . . . "

I remember my mother telling me with deep seriousness that without the intervening grace of God in our lives, any of us were capable of any sinful act, even the most awful crime. As a child, I wondered at that statement. I couldn't murder, could I, or commit a robbery or blaspheme God? Because I loved Jesus from a very early age, I just couldn't comprehend how darkened the human heart could become.

Many times, as an adult, I have taken comfort in the promise, "God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure." A way out—that is just what I'm looking for, although I have learned that often the way out is through! However, as with many promises, there is something else to be considered. The preceding verses say, "These things happened to them [the Israelites wandering in the wilderness] as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience." (I Corinthians 10-13) Put in very simple terms, "If you think you are above certain base thoughts or wicked actions, think again. Your temptations are not made of different stuff than anyone else's; it's just that you have the grace of God to get you through it—if you'll avail yourself of it."

The first round of temptation for the Israelites was not all that remarkable. They were just barely out of Egypt; they hadn't even crossed the Red Sea yet. Pharaoh's army was pursuing them, and they became afraid—a pretty natural temptation, I think. But then, instead of asking God to help them through this terrifying situation, they began to blame Moses. "Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, 'Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!' " (Exodus 14:11, 12) Fear segued into anger and then bitterness. Look around you—or perhaps even within—and you will see how easily this happens. Bitterness turns into all kinds of terrible things, even atrocious crimes.

John Bradford, a sixteenth-century English reformer and martyr, witnessed a prisoner (prisoners, some accounts say) being led to execution and, realizing his own dependence on Divine mercy, said, "There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford." His statement survives these hundreds of years later, quoted usually as "There . . . go I.") That's what my mother was telling me: Don't forget what you could have become—if it weren't for grace.

MaryMartha

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved

Info about Bradford: http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/John-Bradford/1/index.html

Tolerance ≠ Compromise

Tolerance does not necessarily equal compromise. Obviously, lots of people in our society are not too concerned about pleasing God in their lifestyle. Many Christians, I think, are afraid of being considerate of them lest they should themselves face an accusation of being easy on sin. And that simply would not do!

In 1998, after Bill Clinton had made a very public personal failure and a public plea for forgiveness, Tony Campolo was called to act as Clinton's spiritual guide and counselor. In an ABC interview, he says he was asked by the President "to deal with his relationship with Jesus, and the sin in his life. That is not something I've made up, that's what he asked me to do. He called me about two weeks ago and said, 'I need for you to come and spend time with me each week to talk about Jesus, and to talk about my relationship with Jesus and to deal with the sin in my life.' "

The interviewer reminds him that people are apt to put a bad spin on this, that he is just being brought in to put a gloss of contrition on a circumstance that is very damaging for the President. And Tony replies, "Let me just tell you what Jesus is all about. It's about unconditional love and being willing to be crucified. . . . If I have to worry about the spin that other people give to my life instead of being responsible to answering to God for my motivation, I'll go crazy. I mean I don't know what the options are. Am I supposed to stand back here and play a game politically and say, 'How could the Democrats use this? How can the Republicans use this?' I'm only interested in one question: How can God use this? . . . I'm willing to be betrayed, if it gives me an opportunity to share Jesus and his love with a man who needs it very much." Was the Rev. Campolo afraid that "tolerance" will harm his image as a Baptist pastor and evangelist? No. He knows that to love as Jesus loved is not compromise.

The late Jerry Falwell, ultra-conservative televangelist and harsh critic of "pagans," abortionists, feminists and gays/lesbians had this to say in an MSNBC appearance in August of 2005, "I may not agree with the lifestyle," [quite obviously he did not], "but that has nothing to do with the civil rights of that part of our constituency." Equal access to housing and employment are basic rights, not special rights, he declared. "Civil rights for all Americans, black, white, red, yellow, the rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, et cetera, is not a liberal or conservative value. It's an American value . . ." Did Dr. Falwell fear that giving equality to all citizens might be seen as weakness? No. He knew that to treat people fairly is not compromise.

It isn't necessary for us to approve sinful behavior in order to acknowledge another's right to their own choices, even if that is to keep on sinning. After all, it was God Himself who gave that person the freedom to choose. It is only a parable that Jesus told, but the prodigal son's father let him go. He did not force the son to stay under his father's jurisdiction. He was free to sin, just as we all are until we come under "new management."

"What happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified." (Galatians 5:22-24)

MaryMartha

My earlier post related to tolerance/political correctness [here]

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

The interview with Tony Campolo is located at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/relrpt/trr9839.htm

Jerry Falwell's comments are at http://www.answers.com/topic/jerry-falwell#cite_note-15
under the heading, "Social and Political Views: Civil Rights."

What Achan Learned about Sin

After Moses' death, Joshua led the children of Israel. He had just staged a triumphant coup over the well-protected city of Jericho, and "the walls came tumblin' down." Full of their success, a few men went as spies to observe the enemy's strength in the next target city, little Ai. Being assured by the men of an easy victory, Joshua dispatched only about three thousand men to take the city—and they were soundly routed by the enemy.

Joshua, stunned by this unexpected outcome, ripped his clothes as a sign of grief and fell on his face to the ground. "God, why this defeat?" he asked. "Did You bring us here to be run off, after all, by our enemies? When they hear of this, they will laugh at us—and laugh at You because you couldn't deliver your people."

It wasn't God's fault! He had given explicit instructions that everything in the city of Jericho was to be offered up to Him. "Be careful that you don't get greedy and take for yourself something that is set apart for God. That will make trouble for everyone." But a man named Achan couldn't stand to see all those wonderful things go to waste. He saw a fine woven robe, two hundred shekels of silver (worth, by my calculation, about $1000 in our present currency) and a wedge of gold (over a pound = $16,500 in today's market). Seeing them, he desperately wanted them. Surely it wouldn't make that much difference . . . So he took them.

There was a problem, however. If he wore the robe, he would be conspicuous, and it would be obvious to everyone that he had confiscated some of the prohibited loot. Furthermore, he had nowhere to spend the silver without being suspected of some kind of mischief. And how would a wanderer, just in from the desert, come up with a bar of gold anyway? Since there was nothing to do but hide them, Achan buried the beautiful garment, the silver, and the gold in the earth under his tent. Did his crime pay? Not so much. Only the guilty knowledge that he had forbidden goods that he couldn't enjoy.

An act of disobedience was the source of the army's defeat, God explained to Joshua, and He showed him how to identify the guilty party. The leader called out from the twelve tribes the tribe of Judah. From that tribe, he singled out a clan, then a family, and finally an individual—Achan. The punishment was death.

Joshua took Achan and the stolen items, all of Achan's family, all his livestock, his tent—everything connected with him. In the Valley of Achor, the people stoned Achan and his family and burned their bodies and their possessions. They piled a great heap of stones over them that remains, the Scripture says, to the very day the account was written. Ever after, the place was called "the Valley of Trouble. Did Achan's crime pay? Yes, a horrible price, paid not only by Achan but also by all connected with him.

My favorite part of this story is almost hidden in two other portions of Scripture. They give the antidote for the sin and failure represented by the Valley of Trouble. Recorded in the book of Isaiah, many years later, are God's loving words to the very same tribal line of people. "I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live. Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me." (Isaiah 65:9-10) Another prophet contemporary with Isaiah confirms that Trouble Valley's reputation was reversed. Hosea also spoke of the Valley of Achor with a tender message of God's love and pardon for a disobedient nation. There I will give her [Israel] back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt." (Hosea 2:15) A gracious God turned the Valley of Trouble into a place of rest and hope!
Someone reading this may be looking into your own Valley of Trouble at the pile of stones there, marking the place where you encountered defeat. What do you see—

A monument to your inadequacy?
A memorial to your failure?
A symbol of more of the same to come?

You can't disassemble it; it will always just be there. Can you approach your great heap of stones—the memorial of your trouble or failure—and look past it to God? What do you think He sees? Could it be a gateway of hope?

God can transform the most difficult places of our lives into something entirely different, something with meaning and purpose. There is great hope as we look beyond our shortcomings to the great outpouring of God's grace.

MaryMartha

Read or re-read: Failure
Forgive Your Past
Things Mama Taught Me: Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Sometimes Anger Is Okay

It has been fun for me to share with you some of the "Things Mama Taught Me." I have to tell you, though, that she was wrong about some things. She taught me (not so much verbally as by the way she conducted herself) that being angry is not okay. Sunday School and church and a conservative Christian college soundly reaffirmed that idea. Only in relatively recent years—say, the last decade or so—have I learned that sometimes anger is not only okay, but is clearly the appropriate human response to injustice or mistreatment. It would have been better if, instead of never to be angry, my mother had taught me how to be angry.

Mama was wrong about anger because she herself had been not correctly taught. She was the product of her parents' teaching and her religious instruction just as I am. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions render Psalm 4:4, "Be ye angry, and sin not," which apparently is how the Apostle Paul understood the verse, quoting it in his letter to the Ephesians. (4:26) Then why did Paul instruct the believers in verse 31 of the same chapter to "put away anger"? Looking at the Greek words—I don't read Greek, but I have a good concordance—I can see that the two words translated "anger" mean something different. The first, used in verse 26, is becoming provoked or exasperated. The second is much stronger: violent passion, implying punishment; vengeance; wrath. Modern versions express the dissimilarity well:

"Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don't use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don't stay angry. . . Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk." (MSG)

"And don’t sin by letting anger control you . . . Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior." (NLT)

There is an anger that usually produces sin: when it is without reason, when it is quickly stirred, when it exceeds appropriate bounds, when it produces bad effects in words or actions, or when it continues unreasonably long--not to mention a "sin" I may not so quickly recognize, that is, the wrong against myself if I carry repressed fury in my heart. All kinds of physical ailments can be triggered or exacerbated when anger becomes the controlling emotion.

That last sentence holds an important key. Anger is an emotion. It is possible to feel it and then decide to let go of it. We may be justifiably angry, we may "deserve" to feel angry, and we may just want to stay angry! But at some point, for our own spiritual, emotional, and physical health, we must learn to let go. During an angry time of my own, a wise friend reminded me that "Resentment [anger] is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die." (Malachy McCourt, Irish-American author and actor) We may have every right to be angry, but that doesn't give us the right to be cruel to others or to injure ourselves.

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Scripture marked MSG is taken from The Message. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scripture quotation marked NLT is taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com

Things Mama Taught Me: "Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out"

My mother said that to us many times, and although I may not have recognized it as Scripture—it is, and it's found in Numbers 32:23—I certainly believed it. I knew from experience that was how things worked! God seems to have blessed mothers with extra-sensory perception, extensive peripheral vision (maybe even eyes in the back of their heads), keen olfactory detection, and the hearing of a songbird. They just know things!

As a child, I read a story that proved to me without question that wrongdoing cannot be hidden. Now I never hear this Scripture quoted without thinking of that little story that went something like this:

Jimmy's mother was getting ready to bake; she covered a bowl of dough and put it on the back of the stove to rise while she did some other household chores. "Don't touch this bread dough," she told her young son. "Don't even lift the towel and look."

Jimmy couldn't help but be curious. Just what was so important about that bowl of stuff that he couldn't even look? But Mommy had said not to. He left the kitchen and played in the next room for awhile, but then he came back to the kitchen. "I sure would like to look," he thought. But Mommy had said not to. He went away again, but pretty soon he came back. "Just a tiny peek won't hurt," he said to himself. He lifted a corner of the checkered towel from the bowl.

Wow! The bowl was clear full now with a large, puffy white lump. Jimmy just had to stick a couple of fingers into it . . . Poof! The soft white stuff fell back down into the bowl. Jimmy waited, but it didn't come back up. He waited and waited—nothing happened.

"I've got to hide this mess," Jimmy decided, "but I can't put it in the trash 'cause Mommy will see it there. I know—I'll bury it." He got his sand shovel and went out to the flower bed in front of the house. He couldn't dig very deeply with his little shovel, so he divided the white stuff into three smaller pieces and put each part into a shallow hole behind the plants. Then he scraped dirt back over them and took the bowl back into the kitchen. He washed and dried it carefully and put it away. Now the kitchen looked just as it had when Mother left it—almost.

Later in the afternoon, Daddy came home from work, and Jimmy could hear him and Mother talking in the kitchen. Soon they called him to come there as well. Daddy was holding Jimmy's shovel. "Did you leave your shovel out by the flower bed?" he asked.

"Um, hmm, I guess so," Jimmy admitted.

"And I am wondering what happened to the bread dough," Mother said. "Do you know anything about it?"

"Uh, no," Jimmy answered, but his heart began beating very fast.

"Come with us," Mother said. "We want to show you something." Jimmy followed his parents out of the kitchen, through the hallway, and out the front door. They stood in front of the flowerbed, and there Jimmy saw three lumpy white globs of dough rising from the small holes he had dug, each crowned with a sprinkling of dirt!

Jimmy began to cry and hid his face against his mother's legs. "I'm sorry, Mommy," he sobbed, and he told her all about disobeying and poking the bread and burying it and not telling the truth. Daddy was kind, but he was very stern when he explained that wrong cannot be kept hidden, and "Be sure your sin will find you out."

If something is to be hidden, let it be God's Word! "Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You."

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com