April 30
2 Samuel 19:31-20:26; Ps 7; 2 Samuel 21:1-22; 1 Chronicles 20:4-8
If after I performed surgery, my patient developed a wound infection, if my only response was to give her Tylenol for the fever, the patient and her family would be justifiably upset that I was merely treating one of the symptoms, the fever, while ignoring the source of her problems, the infection. What the patient would need would be antibiotics, +/- drainage of the infected site. But this is exactly what we are doing as a nation and as a world. Nothing happens by accident. Sometimes God causes certain events, other times He allows events to occur, but nothing happens outside of His knowledge. So, if we question election integrity, it is not because we need election reform, we have a sin problem. The source is the evil desire for power, so treating the symptom will never be enough. If we question the explosion of LGBTQ, abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, out of wedlock cohabitation, it is not due to a fundamental lack of understanding, lack of access to care, or a need to adjust our educational curricula, the source is sexual sin which remains unchecked. As we witness the dismantling of our cities in the name of social justice, once again, the problem is not reform or enlightenment or education, but acknowledgement of a sin problem. As long as we continue to allow evil behavior to exist, and justify it, explain it away, or seek band-aids to cover up the symptoms, rather than realizing the root cause, which is our shift individually, as a nation, and as a world away from God, we are missing both the cause and the solution. The solution is revival, a return to God. Nothing else will do.
When the famine hit the land of Israel, I'm sure David's initial responses were to treat the symptoms, though the narrative does not elaborate. Perhaps some agricultural reform, some irrigation projects, creating new groups to evaluate the problem, etc. But after three years, rather than seeking an answer to the symptom of the famine, he seeks the source, as we read in 2 Samuel 21:1-6, "There was a famine during David’s reign that lasted for three years, so David asked the Lord about it. And the Lord said, “The famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites.” So the king summoned the Gibeonites. They were not part of Israel but were all that was left of the nation of the Amorites. The people of Israel had sworn not to kill them, but Saul, in his zeal for Israel and Judah, had tried to wipe them out. David asked them, “What can I do for you? How can I make amends so that you will bless the Lord’s people again?” “Well, money can’t settle this matter between us and the family of Saul,” the Gibeonites replied. “Neither can we demand the life of anyone in Israel.” “What can I do then?” David asked. “Just tell me and I will do it for you.” Then they replied, “It was Saul who planned to destroy us, to keep us from having any place at all in the territory of Israel. So let seven of Saul’s sons be handed over to us, and we will execute them before the Lord at Gibeon, on the mountain of the Lord.” “All right,” the king said, “I will do it.”" It was a sin problem, David simply needed to get to the source of the sin, then take care of it.
We read in Matthew 23:37, " “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me." In Matthew 7:7-8, 11, we read, " “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened...So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him." It is not that God doesn't want to help, and it certainly is not that He is incapable of helping us, the problem is that we are not really asking Him. We, as a nation and a world, have largely abandoned Him. Yet when things go wrong, many feel justified in lashing out in anger against Him. Yes, we have a sin problem, band-aids won't cure it. God's story will continue to move forward, history is really His story. The part that we play in His story is determined by whether we make the decision to be His children, be part of His family, or not. Everything else is a distraction from the true problem and the true solution. It is our need for Jesus, as we read in Romans 10:9 (NKJV), " that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." So, the solution is eyes on Him, and off of everything else that seeks to divide and distract.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: