Alien Righteousness
For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Parazim, He will be stirred up as in the valley of Gibeon, to do His task, His unusual task, and to work His work, His extraordinary work. Isaiah 28:21 NASB
To work His work – “As for me and my house.” Joshua’s often-quoted declaration makes his commitment clear. Perhaps it’s worth noting that it includes his entire house. Joshua says that he and his family will serve the Lord. The Hebrew verb is, of course, avad. Joshua is going to work for God. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the Israelites do. He knows where he must labor.
Of course, avad also means worship. Joshua’s family will not only work under the Lord’s banner, they will also worship Him – and no other. Joshua’s work is godly worship.
And then we come to Isaiah. YHWH Himself declares that He will avod avodato (work His work) but this time His work will be utterly alien. It will not be what the people expect. This time the work will be nokriya avodato (foreign work). Joshua made a commitment to work/worship the Lord. YHWH now makes a pledge to bring about the unimaginable – to bring about the destruction of Israel at the hands of its enemies. How is this possible? Hasn’t YHWH made an unbreakable vow with Israel? Does He not exclaim, “Ephraim, how can I give you up?” (Hosea 11:8).
Once more we are confronted with a Near Eastern worldview. What God does defines what is good. There is no external standard that He too must meet. He is the standard. His actions are always good. So when He turns Israel over to its enemies, He is doing what is good. His work is self-glorification. It is making His name hallowed. It is foreign and alien from Israel’s perspective, but not from God’s. His purposes are served. He is worshipped. When Joshua declared that he and his household would work/worship the Lord, he did not mean that he would ascribe to some ethical principle that would insure proper behavior and civility. He did not mean that he would practice appropriate rituals and maintain holy attitudes. He meant that he would do whatever YHWH asked of him because YHWH’s will was his only concern. Centuries later God has to remind His people that His will is still their only concern. When the people stood in front of Joshua and declared that they were witnesses to their commitment, they had no idea that one day their witness would involve such severe chastisement. They could not have imagined that God would use their enemies to bring about His purposes.
But we should know. We should not be surprised to discover the YHWH will avod avodato on us in the same way if necessary. Work isn’t always wonderful from our point of view. Sometimes it seems like a destructive force, tearing us into pieces. We simply lack the perspective to see the whole. God works the work of His purposes, and sometimes that means the work of destruction, the work that makes us wonder if God really cares about us. Sometimes we forget that what He does is always good. That’s when we need to remember Joshua and Isaiah – and then get on with what we are called to do next.
Topical Index: work, worship, serve, avad, Joshua 24:15, Isaiah 28:21, Hosea 11:8
Good word Skip!
I grew up and am still attending churches where people automatically blame Satan and demonic forces for anything that goes wrong in their lives….While I most certainly do not discount spiritual warfare I love the insight that sometimes the destruction is God “working his work” I pray that I never lose sight of the hand of God in my life (good or bad….based on my perception)
AMEN RICK AMEN – i feel the same…
jan
Have you ever received “correction” at the hand of your Father? (yes, “both” Fathers..- this one and that One). I have. And I remember. I received at the loving hand of my Fathers- an “attitude adjustment.”
The heart-cry of fathers everywhere to their children is “please listen to me.” “Please (remember “na?”) do as I ask.” Please carry out the “will” of your Father. Are you listening? And will you obey?
Our ABBA (and He is our ABBA!) sometimes has to “tune us in.” My wife is doing dishes, her back turned towards me and the water is running. I’m sitting at the table immersed in reading. The conversation start in the middle of who knows where, when it “dawns on me”- someone, somewhere is speaking.. But if she calls my name, “Carl”- and dials in my “tuner”- I come from wherever I have been, and am now zeroed in,-giving unto her my focused attention. And I respond (to let her know)- “Yes, dear?” This, is the relationship of love. I give unto her my focused attention- ready to hear and to respond (in love).
What is our relationship with our heavenly Father? (our ABBA?) To “shema” His words. To hear and to respond (in obedience!). To give unto Him our “yes, LORD.” There is no way to say- “no, LORD.” This is impossible. For if we say “no, LORD,” then He is not Lord! Does this make sense? How can we (the created) say no to the Creator? Can the pot say unto the Potter- “why have You made me?” We must yield our lives unto the One who gave His life for us, and then, (according to His instructions),- love (avad) one another.
Now what, friends, is one of the most effective “means” of getting our “focused attention?” Is it the carrot, or is it the stick? Either one works for me, but I prefer the carrot. I don’t always get to choose, but once I get the idea G-d is attempting to get my attention, (through pain, sorrow, sickness, suffering, affliction- He’s got quite a tool chest!) and give unto Him the glory due His name and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ- (yes, our thought-life matters) and there is nothing between my soul and the Savior- G-d has me where He wants me- in the “blessing place”- walking in the straight and narrow way- the Way of Obedience- listening to His voice- “this is the Way, walk ye in it.”
I, like a wild stallion, must be broken. “I” must be meeked and trained to the way of the bit and bridle. For the sake of time and space- I’ll leave out the gory details, but suffice it to say- “He who has begun a good work in you (yes, I’m talkin’ to you!) will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”, “for it is G-d who is working in you, “both” to will and to do His good pleasure.” He started it, and He will complete it. This is our resting place. He bought us, brought us in, He’ll bring us through, and He’ll bring us out. – The LORD is our Sovereign Shepherd, we (the sheep) will be brought into green pastures- “He will tend His flock like a Shepherd; He will gather the lambs in his arms; He will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.” (Isaiah 40.11) Here is our resting place: – The LORD is my Shepherd- I shall not want..He leadeth me..
“My wife is doing dishes, her back turned towards me and the water is running. I’m sitting at the table immersed in reading.”
Carl, I assume you prepared the dinner.
Correct comment Robin 🙂
no Robin,- the scenario is purely fictitious- just ‘splaining how (especially we men-folk) need to be “tuned in” to the proper frequency in order to correctly hear what is being said. Believe or not ( I know this is difficult to comprehend) but I am not listening to every word my wife is saying, especially if I believe I was not invited to be part of her conversation- “are you talkin’ to me?”- lol!. -There are others in the house!- I’m not ‘zeroed in’ on her twenty-four/seven as I ought to be..
My point being (besides the one on top of my head) -before we truly listen to what is being said, someone (anyone) must first have our full and undivided attention.. – does this sound familiar to anyone besides myself or am I the only one honest enuf’ to admit this? I truly believe- especially in this day and age we (the sheep) are some kind of distracted from hearing G-d..so many other noises and flashes of light are alluring us away from hearing Him. He will be heard, btw..- He does have a marvelous way of getting our attention!
Do you remember the story of the ‘perfect mule?’
Robin, Skip, Carl, All who read this, May I bring a bit of reality and hopefully humor, too. I laughed reading Robin’s reply to Carl, because I have been recouping from a fractured foot with serious damage to it otherwise for the past nine weeks. It happened three minutes after arrival in in Houston at our daughter’s home for Father’s day weekend.– A very inconvient timing, as all such things usually are. I got to go to the ER Medical Clinic, and keep my leg in splints elevated for the week-end while Ed went to a church we love, no swimming in their pool, etc. & lots of pain. — We left very early Mon. a.m. to beat the Houston traffic and get home –a four hour drive, to see a Bone Specialist in our area. Ed arose to the time, and decided he was so excited to be in charge of the kitchen.-? Now, he has essential tremors very badly, and our kitchen had been updated in Nov. before the clan arrived for Thanksgiving. I am/was so happy with it, and am a very diligent person in keeping the kitchen very very clean. So I was dreading him being in charge— He is very unconcerned about the things I go to lengths to keep. /and not a good cook at all!— I had to really pray about keeping my mouth shut and not to direct everything. I thought the Lord was teaching me great lessons in humility with a broken foot that I was to keep weight bearing off and it elevated with a giant black plastic boot that felt like iron, made in China of course ( still don’t have the bill on that yet). Well, Ed did all the things I anticipated, and I kept on praying for silence, and kindness, and to learn the lessons from it that I needed. After about three weeks, he was getting really tired, and said, ” I am tired of being in charge of the kitchen, & taking care of the watering ( we are in a severe drought), when do you think I can get out of the kitchen ?”. He added he had only been able to golf four times in all those weeks. Truly, I think it was the first time in our 59 years of marriage that he had ever truly realized how much work goes into planning and executing, and cleaning up for one meal! We actually only eat two meals a day. So I knew that he also is learning great lessons.
—- The Medical care in Houston was the best I had out of three medical areas: and I was very discouaraged about what was happening in the area that I must go to here: I have had several appt., been changed three times, once after we had driven to the Clinic 40 miles away before I knew that one needed to be changed After all this time, I have never yet seen the Bone Specialist! Yes, just a Nurse Practitioner, so I set my face to pray for peace about the healing, and all the hassle, cost of paying full pay for someone other than the Main Surgeon. I am telling you truthfully that I never once lost my patience with anyone there, truly God’s grace in answer to prayers ( because I was very aggravated about the entire situation after a period of time! ) Each time, I was able to bless and say things that helped office help, x-ray lady, and the Nurse Practitioner, and often God gave me humorous things that fit right in, and everyone would be laughing. Laughter, truly a gift from God! I became a friend of the Nurse-Practitoner who is British, and have invited her & her husband to visit us when I can cook. You just never know who God will place in your path to minister to! Even when bad things happen, God is so faithful to use them for good, when we truly seek His face!
–I have been much in the book of Jeremiah— not an easy book to read, and study as the messages are not in chronological order, but oh how God has used it to speak to me and compare it to our own country’s dismal situation, and ( of course the worlds).—- God’s love and blessings in the true Hebrew understanding of the word, to each of you. LaVaye Billings
This message was such an inspiration to me – my personal/family life seems to be crumbling around me SINCE I read the Guardian Angel book and taught on it. My prayers, my cry seems to not have been heard by Father in that area – it is easy to succumb to desperation and despair, but after reading this morning’s Word for the Day from you Skip, I am encouraged. ALL – ALL that HE does is GOOD ….always good! So….with that point firmly established, I will get on with what He has called me to do, and leave the broken pieces for Him to put back together in His timing.
Todah Rabah my friend!
You’re welcome. It’s so hard for us growing up in a world of personal expectations to understand this Hebraic perspective.
Shalom Skip,
Thank you, this was well said and much needed encouragement at this time. To remember He is
still in charge and ordering all things for our good…
On Monday evening at my synagogue, we read Lamentations for Tisha B’av. Talk about struggling to see the goodness of G-d in the midst of adversity. By the time we’re finished reading Lamentations aloud, it was hard not to get depressed. The mood was pretty somber in the sanctuary. But…we have to focus on the hope of his promises and the knowledge that G-d is our Father. Sometimes it seems He takes his protective hand off of our lives while He patiently waits for us to return to him.
Looking through the lens of Jewish history, it is certainly a challenge to see the goodness of G-d in the midst of destruction. It amazes me that even in the face of the horrors of the Holocaust, there were people in the camps who felt the presence of G-d and who did not lose faith. Ugh, my faith is so shallow and my point of view is so selfish. So I need to take the focus off me and start to see things from His perch, His point of view as much as is possible.