New Thoughts (4/12/04-4/17/04)
I'm finding it difficult, today, to set my thoughts on this passage into a proper order. There is a distinct train of thought that I want to pursue, but I can't quite sense the order the cars need to be in on that train. There's simply a lot of ground covered in Mary's response!
To start off, I want to point out the prophetic sense of her song. In verses 51 through 54, she truly is singing out a prophetic message. However, we have become almost as bad as the 1st Century Jew at missing the point when it comes to Messianic matters. What is she speaking of when she tells us how God scatters the proud of thought, deposes rulers, and raises up the humble? I would suggest that we are as quick as were Jesus' contemporaries to think in terms of the King coming into His kingdom. In a sense, perhaps, but not in the political sense. The King who is coming is the True High Priest, and the kingdom He is coming into is the faith of His people, what the Reformers knew as the Invisible Church. The rulers that are so proud in their own thoughts, that will be cast down by this One are none other than the leaders of the Temple, the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
The Pharisees had one major problem: they were proud of their righteous deeds. They were proud of their great understanding when it came to holiness. Unfortunately, pride was in them, what pride always is: an overestimate of our true condition. All their righteousness was as filthy rags in the sight of the Truly Righteous (Isa 64:6-7). They no longer cried out for Him to deliver them from their sins, but felt they had already taken care of the issue. How many of us know periods of that same hyped up opinion of ourselves today? The Sadducees had more or less forced their way into an office that was not theirs. The Temple authorities were God's to appoint, but these had taken up the religious throne under Rome's authority. They would be cast out.
The True High Priest was come. He was come in the clothing of the Humble Servant, the vestments best suited to the One who would care for the people. The Sadducees walked in finery, the Pharisees wrote religious laws that had nothing to do with true religion, and heaped concerns upon the people, rather than promoting faith in God. They would be deposed by this Humble Servant, who came not to be served, but to serve. They would be displaced by the Gospel of Truth, and the laws of man by which they sought to define attainable holiness would be cast aside by the High Priest, who alone could atone for the truly and completely sinful ways of every man.
The pitfall for every man remains the same: Pride, the overestimate of our own worth, the high opinion of self which can only lead to us despising these lesser mortals around us. This is not pride with a foundation, it is pride in thought. Pride becomes a curse with such a foundation. I was reading in Psalm 109 last Sunday, and this passage just jumped out at me, "He also loved cursing, so it came to him; and he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him. But he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, and it entered into his body like water, and like oil into his bones" (Ps 109:17-18). This is pride elevated but one small step. As our opinion of self leads to despising all around us, cursing is quick to follow. What we despise quickly offends us by its mere presence in our vicinity. Because our pride is no more than inflated self-opinion, it leads to a love for cursing and belittling others. If we can knock them down, will we not look better?
Oh, we can come to love cursing. This is nothing to do with foul language, and using words unbefitting the tongue of the righteous! This is far worse! This is talking down everything that is happening. This is declaring to oneself, and to anybody who'll listen, over and over again that nothing will come of our efforts. What is the result of this? Eventually, our expectation of negative results will bring the negative results we expect. Is this, then, the power of positive thinking in reverse? No. It's the power of faith in reverse. Negative thinking and positive thinking have no power in themselves. They are but a reflection of the inward state. The heart of faith, the will set on God's will, knows its purpose and knows that it is operating within its purpose. This mindset cannot but foresee positive results because it knows that God is above, behind, in front of, and throughout everything that is being done.
The mind set on cursing can only believe that God is not in what is being done. If that mind is right, then what is being done is in rebellion to God's purpose, and must fail If that mind is wrong, it has fallen into the trap of calling a good thing evil. That mind has declared itself an enemy of God, at least in that moment, and is therefore in rebellion against God. This will not be tolerated either among those who would claim to be the children of God. Now, this is not some temporary setback that is being discussed, it's not something like we know Peter experienced, where he was for a brief time opposed, but came to his senses later on. No, this is a case of one who loves cursing, who wraps that mood of "it will never work" around himself like a comfortable old cloak. He becomes so steeped in that mindset that becomes his view of everything, and eventually, as the Psalmist says, it will enter into everything he is.
This is the final, lethal poison which pride injects in us. It is an inevitable result of being proud in thought. Because we know ourselves to be so good, our methods so superior, we begin to look upon everybody else's efforts as obviously inferior. If they differ from our own thoughts by even the slightest degree, we become certain that it can't work. After all, it's not our plan. Eventually, this mindset will find itself making that declaration over God's own plans. It's bound to happen. We, in our finite wisdom, will allow the poison of pride to convince us we know better than He of infinite wisdom. It came to Job. As righteous as he was, he fell into that trap of trying to tell God a better way. It didn't work for him, and it won't work for us.
Hannah saw this truth. As she rejoiced to know God had answered her prayers, there comes a point where she turns mentally to all those who thought her case hopeless, "Will you boast in your pride? No more! Restrain your arrogant words, for the LORD is the God of all knowledge, and He knows all your actions." Pride will boast. Pride can only be arrogant when it is based on our own opinion of things. Pride will declare itself wiser than God, but God is the God of all knowledge. Hannah points to them and says, 'God knows what you do when you think nobody can see. God knows what you're like in private.'
There is that key note, though, that He is the God of all knowledge. There is nothing He does not know. We, who would boast in our pride, are aware in spite of that pride that there are any number of things we do not know. Yet, boast we will. In our vaunted opinion of self, we cannot even recognize how foolish it is! We are blind to our own blindness, and that blind spot is a deadly problem for us! Pride can only be an overestimate of our true condition. That overestimate may lead us to ignore every opportunity a merciful God puts before us to change. Pride will blind us to the grace that is offered us, just as it did Judas. What else kept him from seeking the forgiveness that was there in Christ? It was pride that threw the money back at the Temple officials. Pride wanted to be recognized as being right even in the depths of its wrongness. Pride kept him from acknowledging his mistake. That scene at the Temple wasn't an acknowledgement, it was a shifting of blame. Peter's sin was not so much less than Judas', yet the reaction is so different. The reaction results from Peter's lack of pride. He comes across at times like one filled with himself, but he's not. In fact, that very bluster of his is but a sign of his lack of pridefulness. He speaks his mind simply and forthrightly, with no concern for appearances. Judas was, by contrast, carefully measured. His was the calculating mind, and his calculations could not accept his own mistake. Yet, his mistake was there.
He had been telling himself for some time that this whole Messiah thing just couldn't work. He was a smart boy. He could see it wasn't going to turn out well. Better to jump to the winning side. Only, the winning side didn't win, in fact, the winning side was an embarrassment to be associated with. What was left to him? He couldn't stand being associated with the loathsome connivers that could treat an innocent man so unjustly. He couldn't bring himself to return to the company of that innocent man, having made the mistake he had made. Pride would not allow him either satisfaction, so the poison of pride completed its course, and the cursing with which he had cloaked himself entered his bones like oil. His cursing turned upon himself, and took his life.
Father, it's a scary thing to see this connection! How close have I tread to that line? How often have I been guilty of speaking against Your plan and purpose? How I complain of it in others, and yet, is it not my own habit as well? Lord, forgive me! Cleanse this mind from its poison, lest it kill me! I cannot stand the thought of finding out I've been opposing my own Father! I could not stomach finding that I was facing off against my Brother! Cast it out, Lord! Cast out this poisonous pride. If I am a servant, then let me serve in truth, Holy Spirit. Let not my humility be prideful. Purify my heart, lest it wreck all else within me.
What a vile poison, this pride! This is exactly what ruined all the works of the Pharisees. They were so proud of all their works, so proud of the great care they took in performing all those deeds of righteousness. Yet, they blinded themselves by their pride. They could not see that what they were calling righteous were matters of their own opinion, and not the determination of God. They could not see that their acts, while appearing good, were being poisoned by their hearts. Thinking themselves rich in good works, they could not see how utterly naked, how completely lacking in righteousness, they were. They were so proud of their careful tithing, their careful avoidance of things unclean, that they didn't notice their own uncleanness. And when the Son of Righteousness was standing in their midst, they could not see the truth of Him for the blinding scales of their self-deception. With all their effort at being righteous, they missed the very thing that could truly cause them to be righteous in God's sight. With that error, they condemned themselves, and not only themselves, but generations beyond numbering. The deadly effects of pride's poison continue to destroy the heirs of the Pharisees today. Still, they cannot see the Messiah they have been waiting for. They long for God's Salvation, but cannot and will not accept Him as He is. Pride still insists on something different, insists that it knows better than God.
But, God's Salvation has come! Those who recognize Him rejoice! This is not a reaction found only in those who knew Him in His earthly Servant form. Although Mary and John jumped for joy, could not contain the excitement they felt at His arrival, they were hardly the first, nor would they be the last. As I looked through the parallel verses to this passage this Easter morning, my own heart was filled with rejoicing! So many had seen in vision what Mary and John were now experiencing the first taste of, and just knowing that it would happen had given them cause to rejoice. I want to gather the full impact of those verses, to feel the power of centuries of rejoicing over the coming of Salvation into the lives of men. To that end, I'm going to put the text here without the references, and place before my eyes a paragraph of rejoicing, a song of desire fulfilled!
My soul will rejoice in GOD,
And exalt in His salvation!
Still, I will exalt the LORD,
And rejoice in the God of my salvation!
As exalted as the LORD is,
Still He cares about the lowly.
God's lovingkindness is eternal.
There has never been a time when He did not love those who revere Him,
Nor shall there be.
He is righteous even towards the descendents of those who so love Him.
Sing a new song to the LORD
In light of the wonderful things He has done!
He has gained His own victory
By His strength alone!
Joyful shouting is heard among the righteous
For salvation is with them!
God's right hand has done valiantly on their behalf!
He uplifts the lowly,
And makes safe those who mourn.
He satisfies the thirsty,
And fills the hungry soul with that which is good.
"My covenant I will make firm between Me and you,
And to your descendants through all their generations.
This is an eternal covenant,
That I shall be God to you and your descendants."
How can one not rejoice when it is given to us to know the fullness of salvation, the fullness of God's lovingkindness! How can one not rejoice when we have seen the covenant of God made more firm than ever it was known of old! How can one not rejoice knowing this: God called Abraham out of Ur. Abraham wasn't looking for a way out. He was comfortable in his father's house, serving the gods of his father. He wasn't looking for another god, but God called him. Let this sink in! "I found Jesus?" Oh, I don't think so. He most surely found me! God's love is seen that while we were still enemies, He loved us enough to come get us. He came and got Abraham, took him out of the service of false things, and brought him into service to Truth, and Truth blessed him in ways unimagined and unimaginable. That is the story of Abraham's life. Though there were any number of hardships along the way, though he was surely acquainted with grief, still he knew himself blessed. Still, his satisfaction, even in the hardest situations was not found in life, but in God.
Abraham stands as our example in this. His covenant is our covenant. His blessings are our blessings. That which Abraham rejoiced over is ours to rejoice over. We, too, have been called away from serving other gods. We, too, have in many cases been called to leave all family behind, and to be adopted into a new family. We have the edge on Abraham, though. What he could only see as future, we have as firmly established historical reality. By faith, he looked forward to the coming of Salvation. By faith, we entrust ourselves to Salvation already come. We no longer await one to pay the price of our redemption, for we know that our Redeemer lived, and that He lives still! Rejoice, oh my soul, rejoice! The God of your salvation has come and given life!
God's grace has brought us forgiveness. He has forgiven us for our sins, and His promise is that He will ever do so, if we will but repent and ask for forgiveness. Yet, even the forgiven feel a certain anguish in spite of being forgiven. We know God has forgiven us, but we know the consequences remain. We cannot simply pass off responsibility for our actions, as some have promoted in the past. For us, there is God's mercy. In His mercy, He works to alleviate the consequences of the sins He has already forgiven. Wow! What a wonderful Savior! As a father, I am given to understand at least in part the forgiveness of God, in that I must know how to forgive my own child for the mistakes and the hurts of childhood. I also understand that a forgiveness which removes all responsibility, which leaves no consequence in place is no longer forgiveness, but license. It is not forgiveness which trains us, in the end, it is the consequences. Sadly, it seems we generally learn only from our mistakes, and that, only if they cause us enough grief.
How then does this notion of God's mercy fit in? There comes a time when the lesson is learned. Some lessons take longer, and some come quickly. The effects of sin, however, have built up over time, and in the natural, it will take time for them to run their course. The end-product of sin, we know, is death. Death is the only fruit that can grow on that tree. Clearly, this consequence has been overcome by God's mercy. The body may decay, but the spirit will live on for eternity. That is the promise of God! He came to give life. That merciful gift is the antidote for sin's worst consequence. That should be enough for us. What more could we ask of God? Yet, as so often, He gives more than we think to ask.
Even in this life, God's mercy may move to limit the suffering which sin brings upon His children. He does this by turning our hearts back towards repentance. He will not suffer the lost sheep to remain lost. This ties in to the security of the believer. Even when we wander far afield in our fits of rebellion, Father God will not suffer us to remain far off. He draws us back, goes out to find us, Good Shepherd that He is. He is able to keep us until the day of His returning. None can snatch us from His hand! That is the promise to us! That is Jesus' own testimony regarding us! The Father gave us to Him, and the Father keeps us His! There again is mercy enough to satisfy the heart of any child of God.
He may do more than that. Look at the lives of the men we meet in Scripture. Not a one of them was free of sin. Abraham, to whom the covenant of God was given, was not free of sin. He made his mistakes, and some of them continue to bear consequences to this day. One could argue that the whole of the longstanding Middle East crisis can be laid to the sins of the father of multitudes. Yet, God has been merciful to Abraham, and is merciful to him still. He has been faithful to His covenant with Abraham through long centuries, centuries in which all but all of his descendants had turned their eyes away from the God of their fathers. He has been faithful to do what He must do to turn their eyes back towards the God of their salvation. It takes a faithful Father to be willing to do whatever it will take to bring children back to the paths of righteousness. Tough love, we call it today. God wrote the book on it. Knows all about it, He does. He's had to tough love us throughout history. Like any other father, He would that it were not that way, but His love for us is too great to let us go our own way. That's mercy.
Now I think I am ready to dig at the core of this whole passage. I've talked about the proud, and the danger they pose to themselves. The alternative, the contrasting attitude, is that of humility. We've heard of it. We've heard people claim to have it all locked up. But, what is it? The dictionaries are somewhat interesting in this regard. Strong's defines it as a sense of depression, this humble state we are called to. Can that be right? If the joy of the Lord is my strength, why would He call it blessing when I'm depressed? No, I don't think that's the sense of things. Yet, we are called to be humbled, to be humiliated. Where is that humiliation coming from? It comes from this: the perception of our guilt, our wholly sinful ways. This is what brought us to Christ in the first place! What else could give us cause? Until God opened our eyes to our real condition, we thought we were pretty good folks. I know I did. OK, so I swore a lot. I was still a nice guy, all in all. What need did I have of a Savior? I wasn't sensing any great danger that I needed saving from.
But, recognition came, and with that recognition, an understanding of just how often my Savior had already saved my skin. Truly, He had loved me while I was still His enemy. So many events He had rescued me from, so many foolish things I had pursued, yet He had sovereignly, providentially, prevented me from ever obtaining what I though I wanted. He was saving me daily from myself, and I had never recognized it. That recognition: that sudden overwhelming understanding of just what a wretched mess I'd made of things - that's the humiliation that counters pride. With time, we as Christians tend to forget this feeling. Hey! We're Christians now, all that is behind us! This is the first sign of danger, though. This is the sound of pride rising back up. This is the voice of deception.
Again, look to any man of God that Scripture describes for us. Not one of them was ever safe from his sinful ways. Not one of them reached a point where there was absolutely no danger left of them making another mistake. Our need for Christ is total, and it always shall be. In Him alone is my righteousness. The moment I forget that, the moment I think I can make it on my own (and those moments do come), I put myself at risk. I have forgotten Truth, and accepted the Lie. Listen! The world around us is filled with this particular lie like never before! It permeates every facet of society. We are educated to be sufficient in ourselves. All the advertising that comes our way is aimed at two things: the little piece of us that still knows how insufficient we are, and the desire to be sufficient. Buy this, and you will be fine, you'll be on top of things, you'll be in control of your destiny! That's the message of the world. Buy the world's message, and you'll be as a god. The message has never changed. Satan's got one message, he's got a single-issue campaign, but he's real good at sloganeering, so good, that no matter how long we've been en route to home, we still get pulled in by his ads every so often. We may get miles off track before we realize we've been snookered. But, praise be to God! He is faithful, He is forgiving, He is merciful, and if we confess our sins, if we repent and turn our eyes back to Him, He is faithful to forgive us!
There is this message in Mary's song: He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty-handed (v53). This is not a matter of the flesh. This is a matter of the spirit. Those who have seen their true condition become very hungry for a cure. They hunger and thirst for righteousness because they know it's a matter of life and death to them, moreso than ever bread and water could be, and they know that there is not the least bit of righteousness in themselves. They crave it. They will seek it out at all cost, lest they die. It was to these that God sent His Son. He would fill them with good things, manna from heaven in the flesh of His Child, living water from the font of Christ!
The rich, the Pharisees, convinced of their own righteousness, had no use for Righteousness. Likewise, Righteousness had nothing to offer them. True Food and True Drink had come, stood before them, taught them Truth in a fashion meant to be understood, but they would not. No thank You, we're already quite satisfied, I assure You. Thanks and all, but we just ate. They had been invited to the marriage feast for which Israel had long waited, but when the invitation came, they begged off because they weren't really all that hungry. Distraction. Self-deception. Pride. These are the things that turn our eyes from Jesus. These are the things that leave us running headlong towards our own death, and smiling all the way.
The antidote is a heart centered on God's kingdom, a mind contemplating God's kingdom, and eyes focused on the King. With these things in place, we shall find ourselves fully satisfied. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Jesus declared (Mt 5:3). Yes, for it is only those who have seen themselves with open eyes who know just how desperate is their need for the requirements of entry into that kingdom. This is reflected in another beatitude: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Mt 5:6). These are the same people! Those who have seen their condition know their need for righteousness, and know they have no hope of becoming righteous in their own strength. How focused they become! They are hungry for something they cannot gain. While there is any strength in them, they will look for something, anything to satisfy that hunger. They will pursue any avenue which so much as rumors to lead to that satisfaction. In this frenzied search, they will find only one answer that works. They may try any number of things that promise to help, but they will find them all wanting. Only One can satisfy that need. Seek and you will find! Knock, and He will surely open to you. Who do you think has led you to His door, anyway?
This is why the heart that locks onto God's kingdom can only rejoice, can only leap for joy. He has given us a part to play, a labor to perform on behalf of that kingdom! The One who satisfied our hunger, the One who alone could satisfy our hunger, has seen fit to become helpers in His work, and can we be anything other than utterly joyful having been so honored by Him? He has planned for me, planned long eons. He has prepared, since before the creation, for exactly the situations, exactly the encounters, exactly the timing of everything that was needed to open my eyes, and to call me into the kingdom! Awesome! No planning of man could do it. No program of pamphleteering, no prefab salvation message, nothing of the sort led me to Him. There was no leading, there was only calling. "Trust Me this once, and see if I don't prove Myself trustworthy. Accept that I AM, and see if I don't make Myself known to you."
God, how thankful I am that You chose the path with me that You did. How thankful I am, first and foremost, that You chose to call me. Me! Lord, for the most part, I still can't stand me, yet You have adopted me, You have washed and scrubbed, and corrected so patiently, only to see me make the same old mistakes over and over again. Yet, You never gave up on me! You have been patiently working away, making things more clear. You have allowed me to do my part, in spite of my imperfections. You have continued to point out the way, even when I insisted on other paths.
Yet, You have protected me from so much nonsense simply by the way You chose to call me. Truly, You knew me long before I knew You! You knew my thoughts, knew what would reach me, and that is exactly what You put into place for me. I'll never quite understand how it was You put those first two premises in my mind, nor why exactly I was willing to hear it. I'll never know exactly why I said I'd go there in the first place, other than to know that You did it for me. Knowing how You worked for me has helped me to avoid all that would insist that things must happen according to some formula. What have You to do with formulas! The Sovereign Lord of all Creation is hardly one to be constrained by incantations, forced into action by some creature uttering exactly the right words in exactly the right cadence, with just the right gestures. No! You are the I AM. You will do what You will do, and will not be subject to the counsels of men! Glory to You, LORD! All glory to You!
Those who know not only their sinfulness, but what that sinfulness justly deserves will so crave the righteousness which alone can change the outcome, that their whole focus will be on obtaining that desire. This is the hunger that Christ came to satisfy. Can I be quite honest, though? I did not know such a hunger when He came to find me. I wasn't craving much of anything, other than peace with my wife. He didn't wait for me to be starving for Him. He satisfied me with good things before I even knew my stomach was empty! It took a while thereafter before I began to recognize how thorough was my need for Him.
It still takes time. It's easy to slip back into thinking I'm sufficient in myself. It's easy to forget just how desperate is my need, how utterly dependent I am on my Brother and my God. The question I left for myself in this passage is, I see now, a question that needs to be asked every morning, every moment of the day. These are questions that will, perhaps, help to keep my heart, my mind, my eyes attuned to the Truth.
How's my hunger? Where is my satisfaction?
"He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy" (Lk 1:54). What an awesome thing! Even to those who didn't know how badly they needed help, Help was sent! Among His servants, God came to walk as the Suffering Servant, come not to be served, but to serve. What manner of God is this, who would stoop so low on behalf of His creatures? Some among them still understood what righteousness really was. These knew how desperate their case was, and in this Servant, they found the answer. The righteousness they knew they needed, knew they could never achieve, they saw in Him. Others did not understand quite so much. They thought themselves compliant with God's Law until they saw this One. In Him, in His example and in His words, they discovered how far from compliance they truly were. Those whose service to God was from the heart and not merely to be observed by men became aware of their need, and became aware that in Him their need was answered. Whether hungry before, or awakened to hunger by sight of Him, they became hungry for righteousness, and in Christ, God satisfied that hunger. To those who were willing to serve their King even when He came to them looking like a Servant, God had great gifts to give. It's still true today. To those who are willing to accept the God that is as He is, to those who are willing to serve Him whatever He may be doing, He still gives great gifts. To those who know the ceaseless hunger for righteousness, and for His company, He will bring an equally ceaseless satisfaction!
