Did you ever
think that in order to have Shalom in your heart and life you’d actually need to expect and be
prepared for a battle? Or that you’d have to be really careful and discerning
about whose prosperity you were actively seeking and working to obtain? Or that
you’d have to do some serious self-examination, remember God’s blessings and
warnings, and be humble? (Or humbled.) Today we’ll learn how critical all of these things are
to achieving Shalom (rest, peace prosperity).
In this edition of Broken Hearts,
Redeemed, we spread out our Searching for Shalom (rest, health, prosperity)
treasure map in the book of Deuteronomy. Our first stop will be in Chapter 2 at
verse 26. But in order to fully comprehend the results of this verse, we’ll
need to read through verse 30. Moses is reminiscing about past events.
“And I sent messengers from the
Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of
Heshbon,
with words of Shalom saying, ‘Let me
pass through your land; I
will keep strictly to the road, and
I will turn neither to the right nor to the
left. You shall sell me food for
money, that I may eat, and give me water
for money, that I may drink; only
let me pass through on foot, just as the
descendants of Esau who dwell in
Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar
did for me, until I cross the Jordan
to the land which the LORD our God is
giving to us.’
“But Sihon king of Heshbon would not
let us pass through, for the LORD
your God hardened his spirit and
made his heart obstinate, that He might
deliver him into your hand, as it is
this day.
Let’s take a magnifying glass look
at what happened here. Moses had been moving through the land with the
Israelites, and been able to purchase food and water for them from the
descendants of Esau (Jacob’s brothers descendants). Then he asks for the same
provisions to be made to them by Sihon, the king of Heshbon as they travel
through his land. Moses sends him a friendly notice of peace (Shalom) with the
request, promising not to loiter or cause any problems.
Only King Sihon doesn’t reciprocate
in an equally friendly manner. Why? Well, the passage indicates that God
orchestrated the events so that Sihon would not respond in a friendly manner,
so that Sihon would be booted off his throne and the Israelites would gain
control of that land.
Dr. John MacArthur says, “Sihon, by
his own conscious will, refused Israel’s request to journey through his land.
God confirmed what was already in Sihon’s heart, namely arrogance against the
Lord and His people Israel, so that He might defeat him in battle and give his
land to Israel.”
In a nutshell, Sihon was puffed up
and arrogant. So puffed up and arrogant that he turned down an honest offer of
Shalom. And God used that weakness against him.
And that’s one thing we can learn
from this passage: Sometimes words of peace do not work with a person because
of their arrogance, and because God has planned to use their pride against
them, for your eventual — and big — benefit. He plans for them to fail and for
you to have victory.
And don’t miss another important
point: God is the one fighting the battle for you!
I’ve witnessed so many examples of
this, especially in work situations, where it is clear that one person has the
hand of God upon him and continues to be uncannily blessed in almost all that
they do. It appears that everything they touch turns to gold. Another co-worker,
(usually one who thinks and acts like they are pretty hot stuff and who is
perpetually looking for a promotion ladder to climb), takes note of the “lucky”
person’s perpetual good fortunes, and — without understanding or inquiring
about the source of the blessing — lashes out in arrogance and jealousy. And despite
repeated overtures of goodwill and Shalom toward him, the negative behavior
continues and often worsens.
It can be frustrating, and
emotionally and physically exhausting for the peace-extending person to endure.
The offended person sometimes seems bent on making the co-worker’s life
miserable. And when you’re on the receiving end, you’re likely crying out to
God for help and relief. You don’t understand why it’s happening, why your
overtures of Shalom aren’t working. The confrontations and emotional battle can
be brief or persevere for weeks or months.
And then one day it all ends. Just
like that. And you find out the offended person has suddenly been removed from having
to interact with you, or they’ve been reprimanded, demoted or fired. Suddenly
life is calm and peaceful again. And maybe you didn’t even have to go to battle
over it, like Moses did. Or maybe you did. But after you take the time to look
back over all that transpired, after mentally reviewing every event, you’re hit
with the realization that God was working behind the scenes to ensure the
outcome went a certain way, in your favor. Just read some of the miraculous
accounts soldiers and officers have written about battles that seemed sure
losses for them, until Heaven intervened.
But now we’ll leave the victory
story and move forward to Chapter 23, verse 6. In order to appreciate this verse,
we’ll start at verse 5.
“Nevertheless the LORD your God
would not listen to Balaam, but the LORD
your God turned the curse into a
blessing for you, because the LORD your God
loves you. You shall not seek their Shalom nor their prosperity all your
days
forever.”
Wow, aren’t we to always actively seek
someone else’s Shalom and prosperity?
Well,
maybe not.
To understand this, let’s review
briefly what we learned about Balaam in our February 29 study, and get a clear
picture who Moses is referring to and why God says this.
Balaam had sought to undermine and
destroy Israel from the inside
out — by
encouraging intermarriage and yoking together with “strange” people who
followed false gods and worshiped idols. By doing this, the Israelites
compromised and weakened their faith and would eventually be drawn into
worshiping these other gods.
And God is also talking about the time
when the Ammonite and Moabite people did not meet the Israelites with bread and
water on the road when the Israelites came out of Egypt. (In a nutshell, they
didn’t extend hospitality to the Israelites to meet their basic needs.) The
Ammonites and Moabites are also the ones who hired Balaam to curse the
Israelites.
While this admonishment seems
antiquated to us today, it is anything but stale. We need to dig deeper into
this censure and see how it applies to our 21st Century lives. Because
it does apply. The Apostle Paul told use it does.
In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul notes: “All
Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness.” And the Scripture Paul is referring to there is the Old
Testament, because the New one had not yet been written!
So God’s admonishment to the
Israelites thousands of years ago is also one for believers today. And in his
second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul said we are not to be unequally yoked. And he asks the questions: “For what
fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light
with darkness?”
Don’t we need to be honest and ask
ourselves the same questions today? If we ignore this teaching, we’ll eventually
end up compromising and undermining our faith. And there is no faster way to
disharmony and lack of Shalom than when believers yoke themselves to
unbelievers in marriage, business partnerships, or covenant contracts.
Sometimes even joining together in close friendships.
And — dare I say it in this
politically correct-driven world? — spiritual
gatherings. Here’s Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s interpretation of this passage:
“This sounds harsh, but it is a
warning against linking up with false religions.
False religion is satanic in origin.
The devil is not to enter into the
congregation of the Lord. It is
false religion that has damned this world more
than anything else. It is possible
for a beautiful church building with a high
steeple and a lovely organ to be the
very den of Satan. We are to beware of
false religion. False religion has
no place in the congregation of the Lord.”
Violating this principle can be
results that are spiritually, emotionally and physically exhausting, and
sometimes heartbreaking. When you do these things, you are actively seeking out
someone else’s Shalom or prosperity. And you’re indelibly linking it to your
own!
Again, it is clear that this censure
is as practical for our lives today as it what for the Israelites thousands of
years ago. And not only is it practical, it is protective!
Now we’ll make one last stop in
Deuteronomy, at Chapter 29, verse 19. And I’ll start at verse 14 and go through
verse 20 to get the whole picture.
“I (Moses) make this covenant and
this oath, not with you alone, but with him
who stands here with us today before
the LORD our God, as well as with him
who is not here with us today (for
you know that we dwelt in the land of
Egypt and that we came through the nations
which you passed by, and you
saw their abominations and their
idols which were among them—wood and
stone and silver and gold); so that
there may not be among you man or woman
or family or tribe, whose heart
turns away today from the LORD our God, to
go and serve the gods of these
nations, and that there may not be among you
a root bearing bitterness or
wormwood; and so it may not happen, when he
hears the words of this curse, that
he blesses himself in his heart, saying,
‘I shall have Shalom, even though I follow the dictates (stubbornness) of my
heart’— as though the drunkard could be
included with the sober.”
This passage is a reminder of what
the Lord had done for the Israelites, so they would not become complacent or
prideful and follow their own misguided hearts, and convince themselves that
they were doing the right thing. And still enjoy God’s Shalom in spite of their
sin!
Do you ever hear that advice today?
“Follow your heart.” Or have someone ask, “What does your heart tell you to
do?” Unfortunately, the heart is fickle and can’t always be trusted. If you have
a “new” heart given to you by the Lord, then you are more likely to follow the
right path when you hear your heart’s call. But if your heart call is not
aligned with God’s, then beware. You’re likely to be in for a lot of heartache
and pain if you follow yours! And God has no choice but to judge the sin.
This passage speaks directly to
idolatry, and if you read on, you will find out what God thinks about that, and
what happens to the arrogant—dare I say “fool”—who decides to go his own way,
pat himself on the back for it, and advertise it to everyone!
Dr. Charles Stanley in his Life Principles Study Bible says,
“Obedience matters.
God must judge
sin, and believers are not exempt in this world.” He uses Acts 5:1-6 and 1
Peter 4:17 to confirm his point. For Acts, Dr. Stanley notes:
“The fear of God purifies the church
and puts it in a reverent frame of mind
that encourages God to do amazing
things through it. When we fear God, the
fear of mankind will never dissuade
us from doing God’s will.”
Using the First Peter passage, Dr.
Stanley says,
“For the time has come for judgment
to begin at the house of God, and if it
begins with us first, what will be
the end of those who do not obey the gospel
of God?”
Sobering thoughts, for both the
believer and naysayer.
Let’s now do some soul searching
together to see how these three passages will help us achieve Shalom in our
lives.
Questions to Ponder
1) As we looked
at Moses’s Shalom overtures to King Sihon, we learned that Shalom overtures
don’t always guarantee peace. Why? Because
the other person needs to reciprocate in peace. They need to be seeking
peace as much as you do. And that’s something good to remember: Do not assume
that the other person desires peace like you do. Remembering that will prepare
your heart for rejection.
We also learned
that reaching out in peace might actually lead to all-out war. If we remember
that, nothing will surprise us. (And we will be prepared for it!) And if the
other person does reciprocate with an honest intention of peace and shakes
hands on it, then our grateful hearts can bask in delight! But we need to
remember that battles are not always fought on a traditional battlefield. As
Paul warns us in his letter to the Ephesians, our battle now is primarily
spiritual, for which we need to put on spiritual armor daily. Again, this
speaks of preparation for anything that gets slung our way. The lesson here?
When you approach an adversary in Shalom, expect
a battle and be prepared!
Do you know someone who is marking
life difficult for you, despite your
peace overtures to them? Ask God to
reveal to you why that might happening?
Pray for patience as you pray for
that person or situation. Rest assured that
God will one day change this
person’s heart or change your situation so peace
reign! Knowing and believing God is
in control, and trusting Him for the outcome,
is enough to make sure Shalom reigns in your heart in the midst of the struggle.
2) Looking at
God’s directive to the Israelites in Deuteronomy, we learned that there may be
certain people for whom we are not to seek their Shalom or prosperity. While we
are directed to pray for our enemies and love them, and not to repay them evil
for evil, I can’t find anything written in Scripture directing us to actively
seek (ferret out, actively look high and low for) their prosperity. (If you
find a verse, please share it with me!) You’re not repaying theme evil for
evil; you’re just no exerting energy to make them prosper!
Have you ever
experienced this? A co-worker wants you to help them with his work, or asks
you to use your position of influence to gain his favor in high places; or the
co-worker notices your success and works to ride to his success on your coattails? I have a friend who is constantly besieged by emails and phone calls from a
co-worker who sees my friend “going places” in the company, and incessantly asks her to “put in a good word for him” or says, “You could
get me in on that project.”
There's an underlying problem here, though. The problem is that my friend learned that this friendly, ladder-climbing co-worker was saying nasty, degrading and inflammatory things behind
her back. He only wanted to use her to get where he wanted to go, be crowned with the
recognition he thought he deserved. There was really no friendship there, or
mutual respect. It was underhanded, calculated self-service. My friend had
tried repeatedly (before she learned of his backbiting, underhanded ways) to
help this person, but her efforts always seemed to backfire. She actively
sought out this person’s Shalom and prosperity and ended up suffering for it —
emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Warning: Be careful and discerning about whose prosperity you seek!
After she learned of the deceit, she was, of course, devastated. Then she smartened up and started praying for this co-worker rather than working for his prosperity. Immediately Shalom re-entered her life, and work is now a much more enjoyable place. She doesn't feel obligated to return his phone calls or answer his emails, which sometimes arrived at a couple dozen a day. She has drawn a boundary line for herself and protected her heart, and her own emotional prosperity!
Now I’m going to ask you to be
brutally honest with yourself. Do you have
someone in your life you can identify as someone who has actually wronged
you and not sought your forgiveness,
who you actually try to help too much?
Someone
you work hard to serve, and join together with in his labors to achieve
Shalom and prosperity? I’m
not talking about extending grace to someone, I’m
talking about you
rolling up your shirtsleeves and exerting sweat over helping
and aiding.
Is it time to pull back from the
work, the relationship, the heartache and
frustration? Ask God to help you
identify any of these situations in your
that are affecting your personal
Shalom. And — here’s another brutal one —
ask yourself why you continue to
help them? Is it boosting your ego? Are you
doing
it out of a sense of guilt? Or do you get a lot of spiritual or emotional
mileage out of being a martyr? If
you can identify with this and need to make
some changes in order to have
Shalom, ask God how to graciously remove
yourself
from them.
3) In our final
passage, we learned about the dangers of errantly following our hearts and
forsaking God and His authority, then boasting that nothing bad happened to us
and that we still have Shalom! My answer to that is: “Be not deceived; God is
not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians
6:7). You might think you’re getting away with it now, but sooner or later, if
you don’t judge yourself, God will have no choice but to render judgment for,
and on you.
It’s far better
to get it over with now and honestly judge yourself!
Pray honestly and ask God to reveal
to you where you gone astray, and displayed
arrogance over it. Ask Him to
forgive you. Ask Him to humble your heart and
show
you how to redirect your path. He’ll be faithful to do it!
Next week we’ll
make a rest stop to review all that we’ve learned so far and read through our
journal to review what we’ve discovered so far about God, ourselves and Shalom!
Until then, may your week be
full of blessings that you receive and give, your heart be full of joy and
thankfulness, and your days be filled with laughter! Build a little heaven in
your life right now, and watch your heavenly garden grow!
In Christ’s love
and peace,
Andrea
When the eyes of the soul looking
out meet the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right here on earth. ~ A. W. Tozer
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