I was reading in 2 Chronicles 32 of when Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, surrounded Jerusalem with his army. At that time Judah’s little army was a hopeless match for the world’s most powerful army. I suspect that might be like the US Supreme Court ruling that your church must allow child molesters to oversee your children’s department. It would be an insane and unfair confrontation.
Hezekiah, the king of Judah was a righteous, God-fearing king. He had the Jews take some defensive measures, but every logical person knew the situation was hopeless. In that context, Hezekiah told the people, With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah 2 Chronicles 32:8 (ESV). That last sentence triggered the question in my mind, would church attendees take confidence if their church that had been allowed to deteriorate to the point they needed 1 million dollars to restore it, and their pastor stood up on Sunday and told them something like what Hezekiah told his people?
Most likely people today would try to figure out a way to sell their building, borrow the money, or tear down what was too broken, so the restoration costs would not be so great—anything to save their church. I must admit, that would be my initial default way of thinking. I may even feel sorry for the pastor being so naïve and think he was just trying to spiritualize an unsurmountable natural problem. How about you?
The reality is the default thinking of most of us is to look to what the Bible refers to as
the “arm of flesh” or human ingenuity to solve our problem where it is when we or someone we love, develops a sudden life-threatening illness or a financial crisis. Keep in mind, there is a big difference between God using humans to solve problems when He genuinely guides them to do so and when a believer’s default thinking is to resort to human ingenuity without seeking God’s guidance.
I was sobered when I read what God said through the prophet Jeremiah, …Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD Jeremiah 17:5 (ESV). How might we have inadvertently fallen into that very trap too. We figure out creative ways to solve big or little problems or do what we think sounds spiritual. We have even convinced ourselves we are doing so for the cause of Christ. Unfortunately, we can’t see what we have done until over time the fruit of our labor begins to reveal it is not as sweet as we had hoped. It’s even hard then to admit our misguided choice, so we double down and find another “arm of flesh” we believe will stabilize or hopefully restore whatever is showing signs of failure. As the verse says, such default responses are subtle ways of turning away from the Lord! I’m sobered and humbled because far more often than I would like to admit, I stand guilty of that type of thing.
Oh God, forgive me and PLEASE bring me back to where I first trust in You and seek your wisdom when I face a Goliath in my life. Do whatever needs to be done in me to reset my default to running to You and thereby find my confidence restored in hearing Your words to me! If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor Exodus 33:13 (NLT2). Is that your prayer as you start a new year too?