THE PROMISE OF GOD through Moses was a clearly-voiced clarion call that should have guided the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt across a desert terrain and into a land of milk and honey. “I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.” (Ex. 6:8) The people did not listen, and so a generation passed, literally, in the desert, before the earlier promise could be realized. God spoke through Moses again to the new generation: “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deut. 30:19) The core principle of that ancient challenge remains today, and it remains to see if we will listen.
Life has a tendency to keep rolling on. We bump into trials, tiptoe across the quicksand of relationships, try to dodge the head-on wrecks of moral failure, and meanwhile continue to aspire to unrealized dreams while we slog through day-to-day life. Over the years, we become who we are, and no matter where we go, there we are. Our habits are formed for good or for ill, more likely for both, and one day seems much like the next.
Until it doesn’t. Until one of the trials gets too hard, or a slippery slope takes us precipitously off balance, or we don’t avoid the wreck. We come to an unexpected disruptive event that has the potential to break loose the myriad Lilliputian life-strands that have us tied to all the forces that have kept us firmly bound to a predictable path and future through a fallen world. We should have seen the destructive forces coming. Somehow, somewhere, someone said something we should have heard differently.
Paul, writing to the church in Galatia then and to us today, says “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Gal. 6:7-8) Obviously, his point is that our choices have consequences. As it was true in the time of Moses, so the principle of teaching about conscious choices and predictable outcomes remains a consistent word of the Lord in the time of the formation of the church of Jesus Christ.
If we are at all invested in the lessons of scripture, our minds immediately turn to Jesus’ Parable of the Sower (cf. Mark 4, Matt. 13, Luke 8), in which he tells his inner core of disciples that it is the key to unlock an understanding of everything that he teaches. “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?” (Mark 4:13)
Just as Moses promised a far-off land of milk and honey to appeal to the very real needs of an oppressed people, Jesus offers the promise of finding a very real and very different life to those who hear his voice. He explains to his disciples, “The knowledge of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you.” (Matt. 13:10) He uses the illustration of the surrounding agricultural life as a metaphor for the life he speaks of: “Other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” (Matt. 13:8) And then in the same urgent way God spoke earlier through Moses, or later Paul, Jesus says, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” (Luke 8:8b)
The word of God remains what it has always been. It is prophetic and purposeful, insightful and outcome-oriented. “The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.” (Heb. 4:12) God says through Isaiah that the “word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire.” (Isa. 55:11)
God’s voice spoke through the prophets of the O.T. to an errant people, and just a purposefully through the prophets, Jesus’ apostles, of the N.T., to the same kind of errant people. Today, the prophets of both the testaments still speak to clearly to all the peoples of this earth. The problem remains what it has always been—so many do not ‘have the ears to hear.’
The matter at hand for everyone—for you and for me—is not just if we will hear, but moreso that in the hearing, obedience will follow. Our patterns are strong. They are built on a foundation of habits that have taken us a life-time to develop. Something major has to happen to disrupt these patterns, and in doing so, to produce different outcomes. The voice we listen to will determine just which outcomes become possible. Jesus says, “Come, follow me.” (Matt. 4:19) So that we understand the pivotal motivation of the moment that will change our outcomes, he says, “If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15) Having gained our attention, he also adds, “Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.” (Luke 8:18)
A question that arises for all people of all time has to do with whether or not we will hear good counsel, and in hearing, whether or not we will act upon it. The question for Jesus-followers is more pointed, and requires a daily decision that turns us away from ourselves and our habits and common desires. Following Jesus requires an affirmative response to his very narrowly defined challenge. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24) There is no greater disrupter of our life than this; there is also no greater reward.
Q. What is the Lord saying to me about following him?
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