Learning from the Imperfect
One of the things I love about God’s word is that it is filled with real people; real, normal, defective people. Only Christ has the blessing of being perfect. The rest of us are bumbling along like those very large bumble bees that come out in early spring flying rather haphazardly looking for tasty pollen or just looking rather scary when they hover a little too close.
Today in my devotional reading I was led to read 2 Chronicles 15. If you read 2 Chronicles 14 through 16 you’ll get the whole story of Asa the King of Judah during the time of the two kingdoms: Israel and Judah.
Early in Asa’s reign we see that he was a righteous king doing “what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” (14:2). Asa removed foreign altars, broke down the pillars, cut down the Asherim and commanded Judah to seek God. The result of these righteous deeds was that his kingdom had rest from war. He and his people enjoyed a time of peace.
Unfortunately, things rarely stay the same. Eventually, Ethiopia rose up against Judah. This was Asa’s response.
“11 Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; let not man prevail against You.””
What did God do for him? He whooped the Ethiopians’ butts. (See 14:12-15)
In Chapter 15 we see the Spirit of God come upon a prophet named Azariah. He goes to meet Asa and tells him the following:
“2...Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
3 For many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.
4 But in their distress they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and they sought Him, and He let them find Him.
5 In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands.
6 Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress.
7 But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.”
There are several things we can learn from this piece of Scripture:
1 - Our relationship with God is dependent on our choices. This does not mean God isn’t completely sovereign, but He has given us a free will. When we choose to make Christ the Lord of our lives He and His father come and dwell with us.
“23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
If we seek him, He will be found.
“29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”
“10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.”
“6 Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.”
If we forsake Him, He will forsake us.
Can we lose our salvation? That is a question only God can answer. His word tells us, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Theologians attempt to answer this question, but my simple response is, don’t walk away from Jesus. I mean, why would you want to? I don’t get it, believe me. I know people who have chosen to walk away. People I love. Does that mean He has forsaken them and they are no longer saved? I don’t know. All I know is I never want to walk away from this amazing God who allows me to call Him Father! It is this simple choice of faith that convinces me He will never leave me or forsake me.
2. If we are strong and take courage, our work will be rewarded. Azariah told this to Asa, and I think we can take this as encouragement as well. There are times when I wonder if what I have labored over will make any difference. Will those I love come back to God and the truth of the whole of Scripture? Will the time I spend helping and working be remembered? Does anything I say make any difference in anyone’s life? I’m sure you have felt similarly in your walk with Christ.
However, this verse reminds us that if we continue to be strong, and have courage our work will be rewarded. Another passage I return to again and again is Psalm 126.
“1 When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter
And our tongue with joyful shouting;
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us;
We are glad.
4 Restore our captivity, O Lord,
As the streams in the South.
5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.
6 He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.”
I love this psalm because it reminds me that those who sew in tears will one day reap with joyful shouting. God knows our tears and I like to believe He has jars of our tears in heaven which we will one day use to anoint His feet when we bow before Him. Read The Gift of Tears from my blog back in 2016.
“8 You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?”
Image by Michal Navrat from Pixabay
The whole point of being rewarded is so that we can give our gifts back to Him. You could say that is what Asa did. He used his position as King of Judah to restore the altar of the Lord: offer sacrifice to the Lord; enter a covenant with the Lord, and make an oath to the Lord. In return, God rewarded Asa with rest on every side.
“8 Now when Asa heard these words and the prophecy which Azariah the son of Oded the prophet spoke, he took courage and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He then restored the altar of the Lord which was in front of the porch of the Lord.
9 He gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who resided with them, for many defected to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
10 So they assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign.
11 They sacrificed to the Lord that day 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep from the spoil they had brought.
12 They entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul;
13 and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman.
14 Moreover, they made an oath to the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets and with horns.
15 All Judah rejoiced concerning the oath, for they had sworn with their whole heart and had sought Him earnestly, and He let them find Him. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.”
Image found on Pixabay.
3 - Our imperfection is perfect in God’s eyes. If that sounds like it doesn’t make sense don’t worry, I will try to explain. Let’s look at the last few verses of this chapter.
“16 He also removed Maacah, the mother of King Asa, from the position of queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah, and Asa cut down her horrid image, crushed it and burned it at the brook Kidron.
17 But the high places were not removed from Israel; nevertheless Asa’s heart was blameless all his days.
18 He brought into the house of God the dedicated things of his father and his own dedicated things: silver and gold and utensils.
19 And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.”
Here we see the imperfection. Asa did good things, but the world around him still held imperfections and unfortunately these imperfections eventually took their toll on Asa. Read 2 Chronicles 16 to hear the end to Asa’s story.
The final point I want to focus on in this post is verse 17. “But the high places were not removed from Israel; nevertheless Asa’s heart was blameless all his days.” Due to this, God kept peace under Asa’s rule, until the 35th year of his reign. What stands out to me in verse 17 is that Asa’s heart was blameless all his days.
Is my heart blameless all my days? If you knew the things I sometimes think, or the feelings I sometimes feel you most certainly would question my blameless status, but here is the thing, in Christ, when I am buried with Him in His death, and raised with Him in His resurrection, I am blameless. Amy is blameless all her days.
Isn’t God amazing? It isn’t about what we do to try to be good people. It was, is, and always will be about what God has done, and is doing, and will do. He is God. He is good. He is the One who put together the plan to redeem a sinful, broken world. He is the One who hung on a splintered tree so that I might have life and have it more abundantly. He is the perfection in all of our imperfection.