09.01.11
Ezekiel 16.44.45 44 “‘Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: “Like mother, like daughter.” 45 You are a true daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. NIV
The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree; a chip off the old block. So go the sayings of folk about folks who act and speak as their parents before them. He sure takes on the shine of his old man…
Ezekiel 16 is an important piece of the narrative about the ancient days of Israel. In it we get a glimpse of where these people came from, and who and how they were. The most important part of the narrative is the compassionate and deep love that God had for them from the very beginning and the compassion that He always had/has for them. If we cannot see the Bible as, at least, a love story in part, then we’re missing the most important part of the Bible. God has always loved His people – Jew and Gentile.
Unfortunately though, and because of the fall and the rebellion of man, few people have ever really loved God in return. The ultimate insult: spurn the one who loves you. So the proverb had its birth – like mother, like daughter (like father, like son); only a very, very few in the history of the world, have ever really loved God. Most are like mother, like daughter. Who knew such words of antiquity would have such an eerily modern tenor?
Think about the day you were born again (if you are in fact born again). Think about what happened to you and what changed in your life. And then think about the influences that arose within you and how you were raised. Think about your worldview and how you perceived things. When I was born again I harbored a latent fear that God was somehow mad at me and going to surely someday punish me. I thought that way because through my family’s culture, that’s just the way we thought. Nobody ever sat me down and had a conversation with me about God’s character, we just assumed that God was somehow mad at everyone – that is, except the ones who did good. So we did good according to our standard, but God was never much in the picture…except as stern, judgmental, and crabby.
What never occurred to us as a family was: like Father like children. I think that omission persists to this day. But it’s so true – like Father, like children – we’re sons and daughters of the living God! What do you suppose caused the Israelites to forsake God’s love? What was it that caused them to see Him as a Meanie spoiling all their fun? I dunno. I write it off to the fallen and fractured human heart, but I think it boils down to mistrust. Maybe they thought like we do today: that if we sign on with God, then He’s gonna send us off to the Congo or worse, make us teach Sunday School to a bunch of bratty 4th, 5th , and 6th graders.
On Facebook the other night a guy posted a comment on my friend Jim’s status: People tend to reserve the right to commit before getting the details -- control. "Lord show me what you want then I'll decide if I want." Most of our life experience is that God wants control. He shares His plans on a need to know basis -- when we need to know He shows us. It seems that following Jesus requires trust and obedience (note that "die" is in the middle) -- that He is a good God and has good plans as we give control (Lordship I think!) to Him. (Thank you Dan Harding, whoever and wherever you are... this was really good!)
So, like Father, like son. And God trusted in His Son; and His Son trusted in Him. The question is am I willing to trust God that His plans for me, no matter how they feel or how I feel about them, are completely and eternally reliable, and are divinely designed to cause me to trust Him and love Him more? If I do I’m golden. If I don’t, I’m just the weak-willed son of a Hittite mother, and an Amorite father… parenting means a lot…
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