I came upon something in my bible study this morning about
faithfulness that impacted me enough to depart from our present study of the
Gospel of Mark. See what you
think.
In 1 Samuel 2 we have the picture
of Eli as the high priest whose sons are clearly living unholy lives. They are meant to be priests as well, but they
are far from being priest-worthy. Eli
has rebuked them somewhat but what he didn’t do was take them completely out of
any priestly authority. He allowed them to ‘minister’ in the holy place of the
tabernacle in outright blatant sin. Evidently, even in those days after Joshua
died when Israel spiritually fell apart, there remained a godly remnant for it
says, “A man of God came to Eli and said to him….” (2:27) This man is unnamed,
but God knew him and gave him a prophetic word to deliver to Eli.
Among those many
words in 2:27-36, God tells Eli that he
has honored his sons above Himself. Even
as a priest, it is possible to not bring a word of correction to one’s
children for fear of rejection from them, which allows them to continue in ways
that are dishonoring to God. (Selah[1].)
This is what brought a catastrophic end to Eli’s family line. The word to Eli from God went on to say:
“…But I shall honor those who honor Me and those who despise
Me will be lightly
Further on God makes a prophetic statement, saying, “But
I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is
in My heart and in My soul” (:35). Soul is also translated as mind. So giving some thought to being faithful, I
now saw that God considers faithfulness as being related to His heart, meaning
His feelings, emotions, what He loves, who He cares for, who He is willing to
forgive (e.g. everybody!). And to His
soul or mind which is about His intentions and the ways in which He expects
things to be. We could say, His heart is
about His love and His mind is about how we are to live out His love. We could say the same for His heart of truth
and how we are to live accordingly: never lying or flattering or boasting or
bearing false witness which gossip often is. None of those is truth! You could probably come up with some examples
of your own (Selah #3).
Presumably, God meant it would be Samuel who would become
His faithful prophet, but as I pondered this connection between God’s heart and
His soul or mind, which is to say His thinking, I saw how this word to Eli was
also a prophecy referring to Yeshua who was, as we know, His entirely Faithful
One, always and only doing what He knew
was consistent with Abba’s heart-felt intentions. There can exist no
contradiction between the Lord’s heart and His will which I’m calling
intentions here. As I’m writing, it also occurs to me that what
we experience as double-mindedness, is likely the conflict between our own
hearts and souls, which is to say, between where God dwells within our hearts
and when we’re ‘willing’ something contrary in our thoughts. Y’think?
This brought me to another
connection: Yeshua’s last Seder prayer
when He prayed to Abba, “That they may be one as you and I are one” (John
17:11). God is one within Himself as He is never conflicted or double-minded.
Neither was Yeshua because His was “one” with God. His prayer is that we would
be “one” with each other in the oneness They share. It then became clear to me that the oneness
He was speaking of wasn’t that all denominations believe the same doctrines, or
that we all get along with one another without conflicts, but that we become
one with the Father’s heart.
Throughout history, the
church, not always understanding God’s heart, often misunderstood what His will
had been. If His heart had been known,
much bloodshed, excommunication and other ‘church hurt’ would not have happened
at the hands or words of those who thought they were doing God’s will, as they
took on the task of setting things right according to how they saw them, having missed His heart entirely.
In being His
faithful ones, as we are aware of His heart and His soul generally and specifically,
we can assess His intentions and align ourselves with Him accordingly. That’s where the peace and the grace come in
big time. Each of us must know in our
own hearts where and to what He is calling us to be faithful. Have we taken
time to ask God about what is on our own minds and hearts or to find out what
His response is to something we’re intending?
If not, why not? Not everything that is done for God is of or from God. Remember the old adage about laboring
in vain when God isn’t into what we’re doing (See Psalm 127:1) If something
doesn’t line up with His Word, forget it.
If your ‘innards’ are disquieted, quit it.
God’s promises are
laced with His truth and His covenant faithfulness. He remains ever faithful, yet
not so much to us as to His word that tells us how to avail ourselves of much
of His faithfulness. Sow faithfulness,
reap faithfulness. Of course He is
faithful to watch over us all in some measure or the world wouldn’t continue,
but those of us who know the security of being ‘one’ with Him, find being
faithful to Him is our deepest desire out of our love for Him – and in response
to His love for each of us.
A final word that
was actually the inspiration of this article in a response to a ministry email I
received today just after my bible study time.
We must beware of being influenced by a man’s promises to be sure they
are God’s heart’s desires, not man’s desires, or those meant to maintain our
own projects, purposes, or plans. “Unless
the Lord builds the house, he labors in vain who builds it” (Psalm 127:1). (Selah #4).
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