The Creator & the Revival of Justice: Think Possibilities—Don’t Be Limited by Rights
August 10, 2019
Larry R Evans
Vancouver, WA Sabbath School Class
Introduction
Is it possible to read the Bible and be pulled away from God? Is it possible to be religious and be lost? Is it possible to believe in the stories of the Bible yet misunderstand the point of the teachings of the Bible? Is it possible to teach and preach revival yet become insensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit?
Reading the Bible is definitely important but so is “how” we read it!. For example: What’s the point of the story of Abraham? That you and I should be as faithful as he was? What’s the point of the story of Moses? That we should be as strong as he was? What’s the point of the story of David? That you and I should be as courageous as David as we face our own Goliaths?
The problem is we can read these stories in such a way that we become the heroes! No doubt, each of these stories has valuable personal insights about these men of God. However, is that why the Bible includes them – that someday we might become heroes of faith like they were? Many seem to think so.
No wonder many find themselves discouraged and hopeless when reading such stories. We don’t measure up. We fall way short and if this isn’t enough to discourage us, then just read the Sermon on the Mount and specifically the beatitudes. Every one of us falls short of God’s ideal. The same goes for the last day revival. To read the Bible this way makes us the center of attention. In doing so it is only natural to first direct our attention towards what we do or don’t do. The Bible turns such thinking upside down.
Certainly, the Bible seeks our transformation, but it doesn’t start there. We will never be faithful enough, strong enough, courageous enough or find the illusive revival by making ourselves the heroes! The only way we win is by looking to the One that Abraham, Moses, and David point to! It is God who is the hero. We will never have a revival as long as we point others to ourselves. Jesus came and took-on the giants that you and I are facing. We win because He won! We have hope because Jesus opened the Red Sea not because His people walked on dry ground! The gospel is about what Jesus did and what is made available to us because of His life, His death, His promises. Saving faith is a response to what He has done, not something we do to get Him to respond.
So, what does this have to do with justice—our topic for the week? Everything. If we begin our study of “justice” by focusing on us—about what we are not doing or are doing, we will likely try to put new wine in old wineskins. The result will be a surface or a band-aid solution. True justice comes by first seeing God and His purposes, His compassion, for us and others.
Grace, Hope, Justice—a Common Source
The Bible begins with God introducing Himself—not by telling us how He made us though that is important too. Furthermore, the Bible doesn’t begin by telling us where we sinned. That doesn’t come until Genesis 3. God begins by introducing us to Himself and He does that by telling us His names—two different names that serve as a self-description of who He is and how he relates to His creation: Elohim (the powerful, the Almighty One.) and Yahweh (the promise-keeping God who loves, cares and provides before we ever ask). After sin, God raises two questions that sin has impacted: “Where are you?”(Our relationship with. Him -- Gen. 3:9) and “Where is your brother?”(Our relationship with others -- Gen. 4:9). The climax of Genesis is the story of Joseph in chapter 50 but in reality, it’s God telling us about Himself through Joseph. Sent by his father Jacob, Joseph arrives to find his own brothers unreceptive. Joseph is what they are not. They mock him and then push him out of their lives and nearly killed him. Joseph eventually has the power to take revenge but does not. Joseph cares for them, feeds them, and ultimately restores the broken relationship. Through Joseph God reveals His own heart and love for us.
Through this story, we have a much deeper understanding of justice. When God asks, “Where are you?” and “Where is your brother?” He stops us in our self-centered tracks. He calls attention to the kind of unconditional love He has already demonstrated. He is suggesting that we’ve strayed from the image in which we’ve been created. The Bible says we were created in His image (Gen 1:26) Any father or mother looks at their newly born child to see what resemblances there are to them. God does the same thing. After sin somethings were lacking
The Coming of the Messiah
When God came in Person, He did so with the intention of getting us back on track. Life was to have meaning and a purpose but in our self-centeredness, we’ve missed it. To restore that meaning He came in-person to show us that He is still with us and that we can have life and have it more abundantly. (Jn 10:10). We can learn much from His own baptismal experience. Luke describes His baptism like this:
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22)
Such a pronouncement brought two important Scriptures together: (Psalm 2:7 “You are my son, today I have become your father” ANDIsa. 42:1f “Here is my servant, . . he will bring justice to the nations . . . He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. . . I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness ...” In short, Jesus lived among us differently because He had a unique understanding of who He was, what His purpose on this earth was, and who His Father was.
Do we know who we are, what our purpose is, and who our Father is? How do we relate to the world around us?
Today we live in an age of riots, protest marches where waving placards wildly in the air is hoped to bring about change. Lately, mass murders are committed because things aren’t the way some think they should be. Forced change is not a lasting change. It is interesting to note, that as ugly as sin was to Jesus, He did not seek to correct injustices that way.
It becomes clear that the Messiah came to restoreGod’s original purposes. To accomplish this, Isaiah reminds us that He came as the Suffering Servant(Isa. 53). He came to restore hope and purpose in the lives of those who would listen. I am reminded of the words of Annie Dillard who was awarded the 1974 Pultizer Prize for General Nonfiction: “I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until that moment I was lifted and struck.” That’s what Jesus did. He saw in each person the “dignity” placed there at Creation. He came to “lift up” men and women so their bells could ring! He saw and sees within each of “possibilities” that we often don’t see. He set in motion a movement to change the world from the “inside” out. Are we not called to do the same!
When we read about God being a jealous God, we see that God is jealous for us, that we might find the full and abundant life He intended us to have (John 10:10)! Jesus lived the purpose and the purpose was rejected by many. Sin is pervasive. In fact, sin can easily be defined as allowing anything to stand between us and God’s plan for us. Self-absorption is at the heart of injustices.
But There Is a Problem
Our study guide for this week points out that, “We become like the thing or person we worship or focus on. So, it is only natural that concern for others and for justice would diminish when God’s people turned from worshiping a God of justice to worshiping the false gods of the surrounding nations.” (Bible Study Guide) How does God change that? By inciting riots? He chose to come as Isaiah explained—He came as a self-sacrificing servant. Centuries later, Ellen White wrote,
“I saw that it is in the providence of God that widows and orphans, the blind, the deaf, the lame, and persons afflicted in a variety of ways, have been placed in close Christian relationship to His church; it is to prove His people and develop their true character. Angels of God are watching to see how we treat these persons who need our sympathy, love, and disinterested benevolence. This is God’s test of our character. If we have the true religion of the Bible, we shall feel that a debt of love, kindness, and interest is due to Christ in behalf of His brethren; and we can do no less than to show our gratitude for His immeasurable love to us while we were sinners unworthy of His grace, by having a deep interest and unselfish love for those who are our brethren, and who are less fortunate than ourselves.”—Testimonies for the Church 3:511.
Compare this with the insights shared by Isaiah,
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter–
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isa. 58:6-7)
Why would Ellen White and Isaiah direct us to those facing hardships? Because they need our help? Certainly, but what happens to us when we give ourselves, give of our means, give of our time? What happens? We begin to see a new reality. We begin to see life differently. We see each other differently. God brings us into the company of the very ones the world marginalizes that we may see ourselves and God more clearly. It has been said,
At the Sojourners Neighborhood Center, twenty blocks from the White House, the volunteers who will be serving on the food line for homeless people join hands for prayer. Mrs. Mary Glover, a sixty-year-old African-American woman prays “Lord, we know that you’ll be comin’ through this line today. So, help us to treat you well” (Wallis 1994, 51).
There are many lessons that true Sabbath-keeping can teach us but we must never overlook a central teaching of the Sabbath: Our value doesn’t come from what we produce. Our value is found in whose we are!
Concluding Reflection
"If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior." ― from When God Whispers Your Name"– Max Lucado, p.48
With God’s grace shown to us, the questions remain: Where are we? and Where is our brother, our sister?
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