March 22--Where You Can Find Steadiness, No Matter the Madness

Regardless of the storms that rise or the calm of-the-moment, one thing's for certain:  change will come, and not always for the better.  What steadies you when life goes mad? Today's passages say:  Numbers 35-36, Luke 5:1-11, Psalm 66, Proverbs 11:23.

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Transcript

Numbers 35-36

Luke 5:1-11

Psalm 66, Prayer, Proverbs 11:23

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March 22, where you can find steadiness no matter the madness. I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. There are days when our six local grandboys are here all at once and everybody gets along and we all have fun. And then there are days when at least one of them loses his mind and the fun runs out. We were playing in the basement when one suggested we turn out the lights and ride easy rollers and scooters in the pitch black darkness. Another said he wasn't okay with pitch black, but how about we leave a lamp on in the next room? The talk back and forth heated up, and eventually lamp lover was screaming, while the one holding the overhead light switch said calmly, can't we find a way to compromise? For context, let me say that the one wanting to compromise was the one who came up the stairs not long ago, still in rollerblades and screaming bloody murder because his brother had turned out all the lights and made the basement go dark. So there's that. But this time he held the light switch, so he wasn't afraid. He was even willing to compromise. His favorite cousin, however, was hysterical not having his hand on the light switch too. It's hard to trust someone to give you a fair shake when you're not in control and afraid. But eventually they did compromise, the screaming stopped, a dimmer lamp was left on, and the fun cranked back up. Today's passages say where you can find steadiness no matter the madness, because God is in control and never stops looking out for you. The Old Testament chapters are numbers thirty five to thirty six. I love the drama of March weather, sometimes raging, sometimes glorious, it can be wild rain and wind, tornadoes and school closings one week and balmy the next, perfect for planting porch pots, high and low, unpredictable, exciting. This is something of what the book of Numbers has been, because there's been a lot of madness in the shenanigans of God's people, but on this last day of reading it, I see how these lowlights have made the highlights even more dazzling. Each upbeat chapter stands out because the others aren't. In chapter thirty five there are instructions about distributing the promised land they're about to take over, and mainly it's about sharing cities with the Levites who won't get any land because quote, God is their inheritance, end quote. After all Israel has done against him, God still moves forward with keeping his land promise as if nothing's happened, as if he's forgotten all about it. And I'm simply astonished, because I certainly remember how everybody whined. Israel constantly complained about not having food they liked or water to drink. Moses complained about having to lead these needy people. Miriam and Aaron, Moses' siblings, complained about his leadership. I remember how once they reached the land God promised the first time round, the spies they sent in to check it out gave a bad report. The people refused to go in and fight for it, so they had to wander another forty years till that generation died out. I remember how Korah and a group of Levites led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron because they suspected the brothers were making up stuff and only pretended that God said it. God's response was to open up the ground beneath the ring leaders and swallow them, and then to burn up their two hundred and fifty followers who agreed with them. Enough said Nope. The very next day Moses and Aaron were blamed for the deaths of those who died in the landfill. God's response was immediate. A plague came and fourteen thousand seven hundred were killed before Aaron saved the rest by offering incense. I remember how God helped when they were attacked and how they won the battle and got their captured people back, but when they complained afterwards that God deserted them rather than save them, biting snakes came in as discipline. This time they were saved by looking at the snake held up on a flagpole. I remember Balam, a pagan prophet, who came up with a plan to get rich from Balak, the king who wanted to stop Israel. His advice was to bring in Midianite women to seduce the Israelite men to worship their idol Baal. It worked, but thousands lost their lives in the plague God sent promptly afterwards that Phineas stopped by stabbing the fornicators. At this point you'd expect God to say, I'm over these people. They're as hopeless as their parents, because they were. There was hardly a bright spot in this whole book people wise, except for Aaron who stopped the first plague and his grandson Phineas who stopped the second. Interestingly, the sin story stop here with chapter twenty five. The rest of Numbers has to do primarily with land distribution. Moses takes another census to learn how many people are left, so the distribution is fair, plus we learn who gets what peace and what the boundaries are. Even more unbelievably God tells them in subsequent chapters how to celebrate and worship, because now that he's disciplined, he's also forgiven. What's there left to do but enjoy his forgiveness? It's not the first time I felt confounded by what God does. His people have complained and blamed him, disbelieved and completely disobeyed him, yet here he is, not saying one word of reprimand. Plus the plan to give them the promised land stands, and they get to take off days from work to enjoy God's presence with them. There's nothing here about suffering hard consequences. God doesn't even give them the cold shoulder. What's more, there's everything here about getting land they don't deserve and teaching them how to relish him in worship. If you ask me, God's parenting is suspect. He doesn't parent, he's parents. As if that's not enough, there's more upbeat news in the last chapter about Zalopahad's daughters. They'd asked for their father's land in order to preserve his name within his tribal clan because Zelo had no sons, and God said by all means, let the girls have it. But after pondering the details, the tribal leaders foresee how the daughters might lose their father's land along with his name if they marry outside their clan, so they bring it up. These men trouble themselves in the best interest of these women, this is how I read it, though resolving the issue so that Zalopahad's land remains with the tribe does benefit everybody. God's word on it is that Zelo's girls must marry within their family clan so their land stays within their tribe. The daughters agree and quote, did just as God commanded, end quote. The daughter's willingness to abide by God's word of command is refreshing after so much straight up rebellion in this book. It takes a lot of faith to trust that God's words are really best, and it's beautiful to watch these women do what he says rather than take matters into their own hands. When I think of how alien such an attitude is for today, I'm blown away. It's a happy ending I wasn't expecting, and I want to stand up and cheer for the relief it gives, for the social relevance it has, and for the relational advice of it. Yes, this is how men and women should treat one another. It's an extraordinary step of faith by people who haven't offered much thus far to emulate. If God were only concerned with getting people to heaven, then who Zelo's daughters marry would be a moot point, but it's not moot. God weighs in on it, he even makes a command concerning it. His ruling charges this issue with meaning and it reminds me that all of life on earth has importance because God almighty cares about every part of it. His commandments prove it, and so does his listing every person's name in the second census, which is much longer than the first, and maybe for just this reason, all tribes were counted because every life mattered. God is concerned about animals that fall in ditches, about children being seen and heard, about women being strong, about men being kind, plus a whole lot of other things. If he weren't, he wouldn't have made laws concerning them, and it's because everyone and everything matters to him. If it didn't, God would sweep us all into heaven or hell and be done with the madness of us. But he doesn't. He tunes in, he watches, he stays up and keeps track, and checks in and helps out. The one who made sky and seas, tides and winds is as near as thought, breath, and skin. Despite the faithlessness of people, God keeps his promises and keeps checking in on us because he's more forgiving, good and glad with us than we have any idea of. This is what life with Jesus is like bigger, better, fuller, richer. Peter's not confused about who's the fisherman behind the fishing men, and he's content to follow him because being with Jesus is more than enough. That's the thing about following Jesus. The claim he makes on your life doesn't take you out of what you're doing, it takes you out of doing it on your own without him. Having Jesus with you on the journey is the very best part of it. Jesus' life inside you steadies no matter the madness, because he's always with you. From Psalm 66. When life goes wonky, this Psalm shows what's happening behind the scenes. God's plan is to set each of us on the road to life and take us out of the ditch by training and refining us, bringing us into hard scrabble country and pushing us, quote, to our very limit. And while this is miserable, it's also relieving, isn't it? Because I've wondered what's going on when life is crazy hard. I feel the testing the psalmist writes about, as if someone is deliberately digging in and pressing my buttons. I'm relieved to know I'm not imagining it. It makes sense that God would quote, road test us inside and out, take us to hell and back, end quote, because I'm not motivated to seek God when things are easy. It's comforting to read to hell and back too, because it feels like that. Can I get a witness? The good news about hard scrabble country is that there's an oasis there. Finally God brings us, quote, to this well watered place, end quote. The best thing about being thirsty is the way water tastes when you finally drink. The best thing about suffering is the access it gives you to God in ways you never knew you needed him or looked for him. He is the well watered place we can draw from any time we want him. God's presence steadies no matter the madness, because his living water saturates and satisfies. Prayer. God, thank you for the love you keep giving me. Thank you for showing up when life goes upside down. Thank you for your presence that steadies no matter the madness. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs eleven twenty-three. The goals of good folks keep them on track. The goals of wicked folks land them in the ditch. Note the outline for the Book of Numbers in the NIV study Bible was a helpful resource in writing this post. Passages in Numbers, Luke, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve de Bartleaban, Roebuck.