Very Strict

3.5.2012

Deuteronomy 1.27 27 ...and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. NASB

To read this I think about all the times in my life I have accused the Lord of treating me unfairly. (He’s never actually done that, but I have accused Him of that.) The people of Israel had a very immature view of God and routinely accused Him of deceit, claiming He had brought them out of Egypt only to have them destroyed by the inhabitants of the Land. Their accusation was: the Lord hates us. Hate’s a pretty strong word and yet how many times have I inwardly verbalized something equally harsh.

Loving the Lord requires both strength and vulnerability. He will do things or arrange things for us that we may fear as something way too hard for us to accomplish. He’ll put us in situations or circumstances that will test us to the very limits of our abilities. He’ll repeatedly cause us to make the choice: either I go on with God, or go on by myself. The reason He does all of this is to get us to trust Him. Our response is usually, Yeah, but isn’t there an easier way to do this!?

The strength part of our faith is perseverance. Per-severe means “very strict”. To persevere means: to hold on in such a way as to never let go despite the things going on around us. That means holding on when everything around us screams, LET GO! That means holding on regardless of looking foolish. That means holding on because of the (God-given) ability to see with a kind of vision that says, “I’m just gonna do this because I want to see what happens next!”

Which brings us to: vulnerability. We are vulnerable to trust God because we don’t know what path He’ll lead us down next. That’s why Israel would caustically complain: He’s only brought us out here to have us killed! Well, He did bring them out there to kill something; it just wasn’t them – it was their stubborn self-dependence for choosing everything other than His leadership.

To trust God is to say with Job, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him...” (Job 15.13 NASB) God isn’t in the slaying business – He never has been. But He is in the remodeling business – making us into the people (the creatures) He’s created us to be. Now before you pull out your theology guns and blast me, let me say that God’s remodeling means bringing something totally new from what is old; something alive from something dead. That’s vulnerability. And that vulnerability is the birthplace of trust.

Trusting God means being very  strict in accepting where He has us and what He is doing with us. Participating in that process means being very strict with ourselves about the process, that He knows what He is doing; and we won’t die needlessly in the process…completely…