Tokens, Tools & Trophies

In 1 Samuel 6 the Ark of the Lord is returned to the Israelites by the Philistines.  The heathen nation was growing weary of the diseases plaguing their cities.  I find it fitting that even the world can tell the Hand of God when they see it.

 

What really stirred me though was the slaughter that occurred in Beth-shemesh. The men there violated the commandments of the Lord (Num 4:20) by looking into the Ark.

The slaughter was so great that they ended up praying the same prayer as the enemy - that the Ark of the Lord would be taken away. You see Israel had only wanted to use the Ark as a means to victory in battle.  It was a token, a tool, a trophy if you will.  God couldn’t allow his people to get to a place where they thought His power was only good for their desires.

 

Perhaps that is why many find it hard to live for God today.  Their desire for God ends at the need they wish for Him to fill.  God has never been interested in taking the place of a good luck charm.  He calls for “transformation” and a “living sacrifice” (Rom 12).  The world has a bit of a different view.  The following quote from Wilbur Reese comes to mind…

 

“I would like to buy three dollars’ worth of God, please. Not enough to explore my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough God to make me love my neighboor* or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy three dollars’ worth of God please.”

 

I want the Lord in my life.  Be His call sacrifice, service, joy, victory, defeat or sorrow – His will and His glory is my chief desire.  I want your presence at work in my life.  I want to be completely yours.  You see there is another tale of the Ark of the Lord.  This one found in II Chronicles 5.  The priests brought the Ark into his place... the proper place.  And when they did "the glorious presence of the Lord filled the temple."

When we place the Lord in His rightful place.  His glory and power are revealed.  Let Him be revealed in you.

*I believe the original quote reads a black man.  I wrote this for a group of brethren that I felt might be offended by the quote in it's original form.

Where Your Treasure is...

Matthew 6:21 is a very well known and often quoted passage:  "Where your treasure is there will your heart be also."

However I have recently seen it in a different light than I previously had.  I don't know if I only heard it preached as such, or if the roadblock has been in my own mind.  Regardless, I have most often heard the passage used reciprocally - as some sort of biblical litmus test...  Show me where you spend your time and money and I will show you what you love or cherish.

Though that application could be considered and for that matter affirmed I am convinced Christ was speaking in a much more instructive sense.  You see in both the two verses prior and two paragraphs further Jesus is very directive.  Using imperative statements such as "store up..." and "seek first his kingdom..."

You see we too often, especially in a Western culture, follow after our heart.  We seek to do what we love or what we want rather than what we know to do.  Christ was assuring us that if we invest our treasure, our heart will assuredly follow.


Invest your treasure.  Your time, your energy, your talent and absolutely your MONEY in that which is Godly regardless of how you may feel about it.  Your heart will follow.

Amos 4

"I also withheld rain from you… Yet you have not returned to Me," Says the LORD" (v7)

 

Five times God tells of trials and tribulations He has laid upon His people and then laments…"Yet you have not returned to Me."  We often see the loaves and the fishes as a reflection of God's grace and His goodness, and they are.  However we many times do not consider that "God also hath sat the one over against the other" (Eccl 7:14)

 

Isaiah 26:9b says, "... for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." and remember Hosea 5:15b "...in their affliction they will seek me early."  Sometimes our trials are a reflection of God's goodness and mercy because they bring us back to Him.

 

When the Israelites went into captivity in Egypt they were nomadic herdsman and farmers.  However when they came out of bondage they had "such things as they required." It was in the years of captivity they acquired the skills and trades a nation required.

 

If the rain has been withheld from you, or there is mildew in your garden, or you don't have any bread to eat, consider you might be in the middle of the goodness and grace of our Lord – return to Him.

 

Jason Ouellette