Read Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Long ago and a few states away I was assigned as the active duty commander responsible to making sure that a reserve company of Marines was ready to mobilize, deploy, fight, and win. Along with this assignment, I also had a recruiting mission to fill out this reserve unit.
To do this, we did various public events. Most of the time, my Marines took care of this. How many 17 and 18-year-old people wanted to talk with an old man. I was at least 30 at the time.
Occasionally, I would be there and talk with these young folks who showed a little interest. I loved it when these kids were service shopping to see what incentives each service had. One would say, “Well, what can the Marines offer me?”
My answer was standard, “A pack, a rifle, and a hard time.”
Another kid would ask, “How long does it take the average person to become a Marine?”
With a smile on my face, it is my pleasure to announce, “The average person will never become a Marine.”
One of these days, I will probably read online that they are adding a cry room to boot camp, and then I will totally lose it. I will be a basket case. That’s a DNR in my medical file for sure. Don’t even think about resuscitating me then. I’m out of here.
I’ll be singing the words. “And when I get to heaven, Saint Peter I will tell. Another Marine reporting, Sir. I’ve served my time in hell.”
There are some things that you just have to earn.
I don’t think that I could have ever been a medical doctor. I love education. I love continuing education, but college, pre-medical school, medical school, specialty school, internship, residency, and I don’t where exactly one ends and one begins, but I couldn’t imagine waiting until I was pushing 30 to be ready to practice on my own.
And even when you can do it on your own, it’s still called practice—it’s a medical practice. That’s just too much. When you finally make it, then you get to worry about malpractice.
Had God called me to be a medical doctor, I would have been arguing with that burning bush longer than Moses.
There are some things that just seem to be too much for most people.
A long time ago, there was a commander of the Syrian Army—called Aram back then—and he had contracted leprosy. This guy was good. His name was Naaman and he was a good general, but this leprosy thing was a problem. In Israel, he would have been an outcast but even in Syria, this put him at a disadvantage.
He needed help and among his captives was a girl from Israel who served Naaman’s wife. She spoke of a prophet who was in Samaria who could cure him.
Naaman, being a very senior commander, couldn’t just waltz into Samaria without risk of starting a war or being captured. He had to address this matter with his king, who told him to go. He would square it with the king in Israel. There is a whole story here about the kings, but that’s for another day.
Naaman finally gets to the prophet’s house. He is loaded down with gold, silver, and fine clothing. He is ready to pay for this special healing service.
Elisha the prophet sends out a messenger to tell Naaman to go wash in the Jordan River 7 times and he will be healed.
Naaman is furious. The prophet didn’t even come out to greet him. There was no band playing. There was no red carpet for him. All he got was a servant with a message: Go wash in the Jordan 7 times.
Naaman was singing country. Did I shave my legs for this?
This was not what the way this was supposed to go down. What’s this guy telling me? Go wash in the dirty old Jordan. Hey, buddy—we have some clean rivers where I come from. If that’s all there is to it, I could have stayed home.
It is good to have a servant who is a friend, for Naaman’s servant ask him, “If the prophet had asked you to do some great thing—climb a mountain, conquer a country, go without carbs for a week—would you not have done it?”
The answer was, of course, in the affirmative. So why not do the simple thing that the prophet has told you to do?
Don’t you just hate it when you are all ticked off because things did not go the way you thought they would and then somebody just speaks the truth ever so clearly? And the truth is not some complicated formula or process or arduous task; it is simple and straightforward.
You get all worked up because things did not play out the way you thought they should and you find out that the way the Lord had prescribed was best all along. I’m not even going to bring up Proverbs 3:5-6.
Sometimes when we get wrapped up in our own way and our own understanding and our own expectations, we miss the simple. We complicate the simple. We miss what is put before us by God as the way to live. He has shown us, told us, and in some cases demonstrated to us what to do.
There are some things that are just that simple and straightforward.
We have talked a lot about love this year. We have come to love in action and know that’s what we are to do and to be. We are God’s love in action. That’s part of our identity in the Lord.
We have learned that the “how” of being God’s love in action often come down to treating others as we would want to be treated if we were in their shoes.
We know these things and yet somehow, life still seems complicated. Really, what does the Lord require of us?
Israel’s life as a newly liberated nation already seemed complicated. When you have been enslaved for 430 years and now you are on your own as far as human government and decision-making go, things seem complicated.
So, God through Moses asks a question of himself on behalf of his own people. He says what does the Lord ask of you? It was a simple question to which God provided a simple answer.
He said:
So, God gives his people commands. He starts with 10 on tablets. There will be more. Why did God give his people commandments? Why decree that they do certain things?
Our human nature doesn’t like the answer, but God tells us they are for our own good. Doesn’t that just get under your skin when someone—a parent or a teacher or a coach—tells us it’s for our own good.
God said:
It’s for your own good!
What did the prophet Micah have to say 700 years later when the same question was posed? What does the Lord require of you? Having been shown what is good, you are to:
About the same time, the prophet Hosea noted that God desires mercy more than sacrifice. Justice required atonement. Atonement involved recurring sacrifices, burnt offerings.
But more than the sacrifice, God desires mercy. He wants us right with him not for the sake of justice alone but because he is love. He is merciful love.
Having been shown what is good, you are to:
· Seek justice
· Love mercy
· Walk humbly with your God
He wants us to walk humbly with him. Here’s a little insight that today comes in a poem, a nursery rhyme if you will-- As I was going to St. Ives. We don’t know the original author. It came into common use in the early 18th Century England. Most of the kids of that age likely knew the poem and the riddle therein.
As I was going to St. Ives I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits: kits, cats, sacks and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?
Some would say 2801 or 2802 or 2803, but the answer is 1. Only 1 was going to Saint Ives. The first person telling of this nursery rhyme lets us know that he met these people. Whatever direction they were going, they were not walking with him to Saint Ives.
If we are walking with God, we are going the same direction. In the course of our days, how many of us meet God along the way because we are going a different direction?
Humankind seems to be on an endless quest to be with God and be like God; yet God has invited us to be both. He says, be with me. Be still. Know that I am God.
He says that you are brother and sister to the Son of God. You are family. You are made in his image and being made into the likeness of Christ Jesus.
You are being made into love.
It’s a walk, perhaps a race. It is a journey for sure. There is trouble and sometimes even persecution. Some might even hate you for following Jesus. But remember that God said he gave us these decrees, these directions for our own good. Everything that God requires of us is for our own good.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
As we continue to seek God’s ways concerning love and love in action, we will find ourselves migrating to the topics of rest and peace. Delineation among them may not be distinct. Love, action, rest, and peace will overlap considerably.
There is something of a paradox in most everything that we find in our relationship with God. For all that he requires, he returns even more. In action, we find rest and contentment. In doing what he calls us to do we find that we enjoy peace in the middle of action.
What does the Lord require of us? Is it anything that is so hard?
We find the Lord fighting our battles for us. His grace precedes us. His love is everlasting. He knew us before we were born. He established our inheritance before he laid the foundation of the earth.
He has not put us to the test by sending evil. He does not tempt us. There is evil in the world, but whatever trials we have, God makes sure they are tempered by what we can handle.
We have already been given victory over the grave.
The blood of Jesus has atoned for our sin.
Come to think of it, we should have to do a bunch. The bar should be set so high that we could never reach it. The standard to walk with God should be unobtainable; yet, Christ brought us to that place where we may walk humbly with our God.
Really, what does the Lord require of us?
· Fear the Lord. This is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.
· Walk in his ways. He will direct our paths if we trust him.
· Love and serve him with all your heart and soul
· Observe the Lord’s commands and laws that he gave us not for our salvation but for our own good.
· Seek justice, not to condemn others but that we receive the blood of Jesus and are made right with God.
· Love mercy. We are being made in his image. This is an essential ingredient.
· Walk humbly with your God. Is this not the very thing for which he made us?
What does the Lord expect of us? That we love him and love one another.
Life can be tough. It’s tougher when we try to do it our way instead of the Lord’s. It’s tougher when we try to apply our own rules and logic and process when God gave us directions that were for our own good.
Think on this for a moment. Every good gift is from above. It’s from God. The gift of God’s commands and decrees and laws if you will—from having no other gods to love one another—are for our own good.
We know to love God and love one another. We know that love fulfills the law. We know the Golden Rule. We know so much but what does the Lord require of us?
Let’s reinforce what we know to do with Micah’s words.
Seek justice
Love mercy
Walk humbly with your God
Has the Lord asked too much of us?
Amen.
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