#406 Where Have You Been?

When the King of kings came, the Master of the world, Prince and Co-Creator of the universe, for it clearly states : The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.…Colossians 1:15-17, and yet He comes in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The poor would think the answer is to be rich, the weak to be like Samson, and the one being told to go, that someone else should go. The one being called would beg for another gospel for as we have long discussed, Christ was the worst sort of salesman, yet there is no other gospel, no other name under heaven by which men can be saved. 

When we read Judges, we find wicked people, a people who find no difficulty in breaking their covenant with God. They take great pleasure in their sin and shun those who would tell them otherwise. We find a God Who corrects His own, giving them over to the fruits of their labor. It says, whom the Lord loveth he chaseneth, and so if your life was painless and without correction, but you had no need for God, then beware. It is a blessing we come to find, that we are corrected, that God has given us His word, and now when I think of leaving this life, I wonder at what I could leave my kids that would give them the greatest advantage. If I tell them of the Word of God, they see me reading it to know that it is truly important to me, and if  God by His love and mercy acts upon their stone hearts, bringing them to life, they have ever the advantage to eternity. For if God be true and heaven and earth do pass away, He says, His word shall remain. 

When I read Judges or Genesis for that matter, I see that everything points to Christ. Though Samson was despised and rejected, though he was physically strong and called from a barren womb, he was a temporary picture, an imperfect savior. I look throughout all of Judges and knowing the fear of God I have when pondering a holiness I cannot grasp, I am astonished at such loving patience. It does not bid me wait, for I am more displeased with my sin in light of God's mercy than ever I was at His wrath. So when you, O man, pass judgment on others, yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4Ordo you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? 5But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.…Romans 2: 4 & 5

My Savior, the fullness of God, covered in the shell of infant humanity, born of a poor virgin, was raised by a carpenter. He was not clothed in what men find beautiful or respectable. Who would listen to him? Did he come from wealthy parents, sit at king's tables? Everything we do as men coming to Christ and trying to convict the world we live in of sin and God's wrath is like watching a new born deer trying to stand up. We are clumsy, imperfect, but One came Who did it perfectly, justly, righteously, in a way I could not, because I was dead. I had to be brought to life. I could see that I did not create myself. I could see that there was order to the universe and displeasure done to me which I considered wrong. I had eyes, but I was blind, I had ears but I was deaf. There was a void between myself and good that could not be bridged; I could not see the other side and wanted more and more to believe that this proved it was not there. Then we meet someone in the pages of History, Someone whom the scriptures long foretold, and what does Nicodemus ask him? After he told Jesus that he knew he was a teacher sent from God and Christ tells him that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again, Nicodemus asked, "How can this be?" Why would God use such language? Nicodemus automatically tries to understand it by his own might, human effort, as if Samson was not chosen by God, created by God, and his strength did not come from the Spirit of God, but by his own will. As if Deborah made herself a prophetess, as if Gideon made the Messenger come down to speak to him. It all comes from outside of us. Salvation is from outside of us, victory, ability, birth, new birth, new life, comes from the Lord. 

18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. James 1:18

I love the story of the Judges, from Gideon asking God, where have You been? Where are your miracles? Jael, takes a tent stake and kills the scary general that everyone fears. There is no arguing the uniqueness of Samson, yet his kin are not kindred. They do not recognize him as their champion or as a time to rise up against their oppressors. I look at Gibeah and see my own world time and time again, and cannot help but wonder at the patience and love of God, and realize that I didn't choose Him. I realize that I didn't understand what it was to be born again when I was young. I thought it was an act of my own, but that doesn't follow logic. No one births themselves, wills it or has any choice in it, yet you must be born again. 

For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, Colossians 2:13

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44

For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but onGod’s mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”…Romans 9:15-17