“For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” Psalm 43:2. This is often how we feel when we are going through a struggle—that God has rejected us. We go about in mourning; our soul is downcast within us—'why the long face?’ We take refuge in God we believe has left us. Where else can we go? He alone has the words of eternal life. And so we need Him to send His light and His truth, but how can it come to us unless it is sent? The psalmist continues, “let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!” This is the job of the church, as the members of the body have equal concern for one another. Romans 10:14-17 reminds us of the importance of the preaching that leads to another’s belief and restoration, “And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” We, who are simple clay jars, are entrusted with a treasure of God’s Word, which is the light of the gospel in the face of Christ, to shine out to the downcast souls around us, both the saved and the lost, to restore them into a right relationship with Jesus.

“And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. … And God sent me before you to preserve a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors” Genesis 45:5-7. The very nature of a remnant is separation of a sanctified people; it’s dwindling numbers while we trust in God for survival; it’s loneliness on the narrow path while we see the wicked prosper. This was true in the days that Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” while he built the ark in which only eight people were saved. It was true at the time of the exiles refined in captivity in Babylon who restored right worship and living with Ezra the priest. And it’s true of the Lord’s church today in the face of such an antagonistic culture that has pulled away so many in our younger generations. But, though we, with the help of “lawless men” sold our Father’s favored Son, God has sent Him to preserve a remnant in His church and to keep alive for us many survivors. Survivors indicate that we must go through many tribulations to enter the kingdom of God and many will choose not to do so. But, God who is in charge of the increase, will reserve the remnant. We must faithfully plant and water.

“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God” Psalm 42:1. Here is the picture of someone who had once been part of the core group of believers, worshiping and serving God with the faithful, but has fallen away. The reason is not clear but several times the psalmist asks, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” And yet, his thirst for God is not quenched. His soul pants for God like a deer pants for flowing streams. To the woman at the well in Samaria in John 4, Jesus promises to give living water so that she will never thirst. She too has a downcast soul because of sinful choices she has made in her life. That she was at the well in the middle of day instead of morning or evening shows us how shunned she was from others. Yet, Jesus was able to re-engage her with her thirst. There are so many whose souls are downcast around us. We must help them find their thirst once again. Then, as Psalm 1 shows us, we must have them drink deeply from God’s Word for them to be a tree planted by the water once again. He concludes in Psalm 42:11, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” Thirsty?   

“‘Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of heaven before you’” Matthew 21:31. So many of us, who have never shared the gospel with another person, sing the lyrics to “I Love to Tell the Story” without really thinking about the contrast between our words and actions. How much like the first son in Jesus’ parable we are who declared to his father that he would work in the vineyard that day but then never did it! To be honest, we might change the lyrics to say, “I hate to tell the story …” or the chorus to “‘Twon’t be my theme in glory ….” (Is ‘Twon’t even a word?) But who would want to sing such lyrics, even if they are more accurate? It's human tendency to make ourselves sound better than we are, to paint a rosier picture of ourselves, to put up a façade to fool others. But, God is not fooled. The son who did his father’s will, we are told, is the one who was honest at first by declaring that he would not obey but then had a change of heart and did his father’s work. This one is likened to terrible sinners, whose reputations could not hide behind facades, but repented.

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” Judges 17:6. There’s so much wrong with this story that it’s hard to know where to begin. First, Micah had stolen his mother’s money and listen to her uttering a curse about it. Then, as much as it sounds good that he repented and returned it, she, perhaps no longer counting on it, commissions an idol to be made with it and gives it to Micah, who ordains a son to be his priest before this idol. This is how low the spiritual state of God’s people had sunk to that this mother rewards her son’s repentance of his theft from her by idolatry, and he by a continuation of what was against God. Everyone doing what was right in their own eyes is echoed throughout Judges and also found in the last verse of the book. How this also describes the spiritual state of “Christianity” today! When groups or individuals do not have Christ as king, then they establish their own authority. Carving a god made in their own image, they pat themselves on the back because of their self-proclaimed piety and new moral high ground—all the while condemning those who strive to live by the King’s authority as haters of good.