God Sees What We Cannot See

 Psalm 60              Leviticus 9-10     Mark 3

In today’s song David reflects that because God has become angry with them as a people, because they walked away from following God’s ways, they feel rejected. As a nation they are feeling broken and no one feels that more than their leader, David. When we choose to live other than God calls us to it leads to experiencing hardship. It is when we find ourselves in those places of hardship that we are called to lift high the banner of our God and proclaim his praise. When the truth is proclaimed the beloved of God will be delivered. There is a call on God to deliver the people from those the hold them down but then only praise him and give him the credit for what he has done rather than take credit for it.

As the people of Israel set out on the journey toward the land promised to them in the second year after they left God commanded and Moses led them in celebrating Passover. This was a reminder of who had delivered them from Egypt, and it would be that some power that would provide a cloud over the tabernacle and tell them when to travel and when to stay in place. As I read this, I couldn’t help but think this was a test of obedience and patience for the people. They followed the Lord’s directions and received his blessings.

God also provided a method of communicating to the people the will of God and a plan for battle as they set their sights on a land occupied by others. They set out and followed the Lord. Their prayer offered through Moses it that their enemies would be scattered before them and that God would do the work of leading and moving the enemies from before them.

In Mark we see it didn’t take long for those in power to be challenged by Jesus showing the power of being obedient to God and changing lives. They wanted to look to their laws and rules, many created to enhance their power, while Jesus wanted people to live God’s way. Note that when the man with the withered hand is with Jesus that Jesus doesn’t do anything, even touch him, and his hand is restored. The leaders found what they wanted to see and proclaimed it as truth. Then they began to plot how to destroy the one that threatened their power and way of life.

But the people were more interested in the power of the one that could really change their lives than in the ones that just talked about what they should or shouldn’t do. After experiencing the life changing power of Jesus on their lives they couldn’t keep quiet about it because it was exactly what they had been trying to achieve by following the rules.

Jesus sets apart a small group of disciples that have been walking daily with him, listening to his teaching and more importantly, experiencing how he treated people and love them. The impact is more people being drawn to him to the point the crowds are overwhelming them and making it hard even to eat a meal or care for themselves. The result is the family and friends of Jesus want to stop him, another group of leaders from Jerusalem come to spread lies to deceive people about where the power comes from. Jesus tells them that any organization that is divided cannot stand and will fall.

God is prepared to forgive all sins but denying the power of God as experienced in Jesus and the Holy Spirit will result in eternal separation from God, the very thing they should be avoiding at all costs. When we live life God’s way, we become a son or daughter of God and therefor siblings with all who are doing the will of God.

During this season of Lent, when reflecting on the way we fail or succeed in reflecting Jesus, and therefor God, to the world our hearts should be broken as we realize it was our choices that separated us from God and not God’s rejection of us. God continually calls us to return to seeking to live God’s way and trust that he has our best interest in mind, even when we can’t see how that is possible.