August 5: Of Choices and Obedience

Ezra 1:1-2:70

1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5

Psalm 27:7-14

Proverbs 20:22-23

Ezra 2:59, 62-63: "The following came up from the towns of Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerch, Addon and Immer, but they could not show that their families were descended from Israel…These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean.  The governor ordered them not to eat any of the most sacred food…"

Scripture doesn't tell us how those who were excluded reacted to the news way back around 549 BC.  If that had happened in 21st century America today, though, I am fairly sure the outcry would have been furious, people railing at the decree, calling it unjust, and demanding "inclusiveness".  There might even have been protests, with signs that said "Not My Governor!" and "Sacred Food For All!". For them, God blessing them with the restoration (and supplying them with freewill offerings, even!) would not have been enough; they would have demanded a restoration on their terms.  They would have insisted that, because they believed their intentions were good, the course of action they wanted was the right one and, in doing so, would have justified opposing God's commands.  

As I sit here on a rainy Saturday morning, I am struck by two things others might find so obvious as to be hardly worth repeating: first, that the choice to oppose God, however well intentioned one's justifications, is sin.  No two ways about it.  And second, I am in no position to sit in judgment of those who sin, having developed such a lifelong expertise at it myself.    

So why bring it up?  Perhaps to remind myself that what I think, however well intentioned, does not matter; what matters is what God commands.  And there will be many instances, many situations where I will not understand why God will have permitted things to come to pass.  The challenge to me is to respond not according to my own will, but to seek His will and obey.  Sometimes that will be difficult - I will REALLY REALLY REALLY want to do things my way; sometimes it will come at great cost - because the world will REALLY REALLY REALLY want me to do things its way.  I pray that as these situations arise, that I - that we, all of us - be given the wisdom to know His will, the strength to choose it, and the fortitude to see it through.