Your Mission

But know that the Lord has set apart the godly person for Himself; the Lord hears when I call to Him. Psalm 4:3  NASB

Set apart – “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, . . .”  The famous line from every Mission Impossible episode. It seems appropriate here as well.  God may set you apart, but you still have to choose to accept His assignment.  As we know, not everyone does so, and even among those who do, it’s not always joyfully.  The prophets come to mind.  How difficult it was for them to accept the mission.  And the Messiah, of course.  Perhaps the typical exuberance of Western Christianity about being set apart is more naïve than biblical.

We’ve investigated the meaning of “godly person,” discovering that ḥāsîd, derived from that rich root, ḥesed, stretched us to re-examine the role of Torah as the rule of life.  Now we discover that being set apart contains the same Torah-based existence.  The Hebrew verb is pālâ, here as a Hif’il, a causative, active sense.  God does the acting.  The ḥāsîd is the recipient of that action.  God chooses whom He wishes.  This is the often-mistaken notion of election.  But it is election to a favored position of unusual demand.  If we think that election simply means “designated for the heavenly gates,” we will never understand the fuller sense of this verb.  God chooses the ḥāsîd in order to fulfill His purposes, whatever they might be—and often with some sense of disregard for the consequences to the ḥāsîd.  In the era of the Santa Claus God, we are apt to think of election as an enormously beneficial exercise.  Perhaps we would be closer to the truth if we thought of election as it affected Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea.  Of course, as followers of the Messiah, we dare not forget the prayer in the Garden.  Election is a seriously difficult thing.

Now let’s reflect on Job.  Job was elected, that is, set apart for God’s purposes.  Not that it was of much benefit for Job.  But that doesn’t mean God abandoned Job.  It means just the opposite.  God never abandoned Job even if He did not communicate this faithfulness with Job.  That’s what matters here.  The psalmist does not tell us that God constantly affirms His election.  He just says that God elects.  That’s quite enough.  Further communication of the fact is unnecessary.  What matters on our side of the equation is that because God elects, He listens.  Once again, listening is not the same as answering.  Ask Job.  But the solid fact that God sets the ḥāsîd apart entails that God listens.  And that should also be enough.   È abbastanza!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to maintain faithfulness to the God who elects even if He doesn’t need to tell you.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to live the life of a ḥāsîd, a Torah-based infusion into consciousness, so that even if He doesn’t tell you, you have the confidence that He listens—without expecting His answer. Serious change is required to step away from the incessant demand for spiritual confirmation, for signs and wonders that God actively cares.  Signs and wonders are not given to the ḥāsîdim.  They don’t need them.

Topical Index: set apart, pālâ, ḥāsîd, godly, Psalm 4:3