The Lord must be hallowed

I am currently reading in the book of 2 Samuel for my quiet time and chapter 6 just totally hit me… as it always does. There are connections here though that are true throughout all scripture and time periods. King David is bringing up the ark from Kirjath Jearim and instead of carrying the ark with the poles they set it on a cart. When the oxen stumble, Uzza puts out his hand to make sure the ark is steady and God kills him for his irreverence.

“Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzza, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God.” 2 Sam 6:7

The same thing happened when Nadab and Abihu offered profane fire in censers before the Lord when He had not commanded it. He killed them both. I believe the answer to these outbursts is given in the same text in Lev. 10:3 “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.”

God must be regarded as holy. He must be hallowed. He must be sanctified. He must be glorified. It is not an option for those who come near Him… it MUST be done.

This is also seen in the New Testament in several cases but I will mention one:

“For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgement to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you and many are dead.” 1 Cor. 11:29-30

Paul addresses the Corinthian church and rebukes them for treating the Lord’s supper lightly and tells them that they are eating and drinking judgement on themselves and that many are sick, weak, and dead because of it. This is all because they did not reverence or hallow or sanctify that which God had sanctified. They treated it irreverently. So God may judge things swiftly or slowly, or¬†any combination like swiftly yet with drawn out consequences (being sick or weak) or quickly with immediate consequences (striking you dead).

Having said that, I think the reaction of David is similar to many of ours. David was angry when God killed Uzza. He was angry and afraid of God and asked “How can the ark come to me?”. I think he was thinking that he would have done the same thing out of a good motive to protect the ark as what Uzza had done. The difference, I think, is that the Spirit of the Lord was on David and He was merciful to him and did not allow him to treat the ark irreverently directly but taught him a lesson by it. The lesson is: He must be regarded as holy. He must be hallowed. He must be set apart. David had the ark carried in a way that God had not commanded.

So it is with us, if we come near to God. We must set Him apart and He must be hallowed. I think it is one of the reasons I have a hard time with jokes that involve God or any depictions of God in an irreverent way. I of course do not want to be appear “holier than thou” with other friends, but at the same time I could care less because I would much rather appear that way when it is not true than be what my conscience tells me is irreverent and does not sanctify God and does not set Him apart and does not glorify Him. Of course I mess up and miss things… but when something is evident to me I do not wish to treat God irreverently.¬†

In fact, it’s not like we can treat Him reverently enough. For example when we use superlatives to describe something… like “awesome” or “most amazing” or “incredible” or “best ever”… often I, and we, use them to describe something like food. In that case we might say “that meal was awesome” and by doing so we are greatly overstating the case. Where as, when we say “God is awesome” we can never put enough force behind those words… we always understate with that superlative. So we can say we had the most amazing meal and that God is the most amazing being and yet with one we vastly overstate and with the other we immeasurably understate the significance.

After watching some of the movies I have seen (regrettably) and hearing the profane things said about God, if I were God I would have probably toppled the theater and killed everyone in it just for taking part. Especially after lavishing the lovingkindness on everyone that God lavishes. But thankfully I am not God and thankfully God is not only a just God but He is rich in mercy. He died for the rebellious, ungodly, sinner… like me. He is rich, rich, rich in mercy… overflowing with riches in mercy and lovingkindness.

So… back to David… after I kept reading, it looks like they got it right the next time and carried the ark as God had commanded. They regarded Him as holy and hallowed His name by obeying His commands. For they ¬†learned “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified”.

The Lord must be hallowed.

Continually Continuously Praying, Rejoicing, and Giving Thanks

Something I have been meditating on lately: how often is:

“Rejoice always”

and

“Pray without ceasing”

and

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”.

I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Paul gives these exhortations and commands to the Thessalonian Church… and to us as well. I have heard many sermons that cite one of the above and expound on it… and rightfully so… but they (the three statements) seem so much more powerful when taken together. They are, after all, all in the same sentence. The words continually, continuously, consistently, intentionally, determinedly, and obediently all come to my mind. Yeah, all adverbs. What I mean is, those words come to mind as inferences from Paul’s statements of how those things: rejoicing, prayer, and giving thanks, should be done.

Rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks… always, without ceasing, and in everything. Being able to commune with God is an incredible gift to us. Being able to be known by Him and know Him and to be bound to Him in prayer is a wonderful mercy to us enabling us to be intimate with Him.

Some people say God doesn’t care about the little details of our life, that is, where we go for the day, who we do business with, what we do with our lives, and how we “depend”… (how and what we depend on for our doings and dealings).¬†

Looking at the communication through scripture shows that God cares about all things in our lives. David can ask God if he should go up to the tribe of Judah and God will tell him to go up. Then David can ask to which city should he go and God will tell him Hebron. On the other hand Paul can ask the Lord if he can go to visit the Romans… if it be in the will of God (Rom 1:9-10).

Oh the rebukes that are in scripture when men and women do not ask or inquire of the Lord in all sorts and manner of dealings… and what great evidence of blessing can be seen when men and women inquire, seek, and ask the Lord for all sorts of things like travel plans (Paul, David, Samuel, Saul), sickness (Paul, Azariah), and babies to be born (Hannah, Isaac). There are countless of examples of people praying throughout history and God hearing and respecting all sorts of situations… that I find amazing. I believe one of the key purposes of prayer (not the only purpose) is to bind our will to the will of God, whatever that may be… whether it be death or sickness or health or prosperity or suffering or poverty or life.¬†

Rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in everything… that is the will of God for us… as we walk in all of the situations that we walk in.¬†

There is obviously more to be said, there always is, but I must stop. This verse comes to mind, speaking of a parable Jesus spoke in Luke 18 “Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart“

Not torn between two worlds

It’s strange how not posting a blog in a little over a week feels like I have been underground for months… in the digital world. I don’t like that. I also do not care that much, especially when things in the non-digital world take up my time such that I have less to spend in the digital world.¬†

Sure I like the digital world, and this post is not meant to even address how much more or less I like the non-digital world than the digital world. It is just to remind me in my dislike of feeling detached that I much rather feel connected to my non-digital purposes.