Of Ill-Repute

 

“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”

—John 1:46

Abused, treated harshly, neglected, given a bad reputation, emotionally tormented, rejected—each of these labels can far too often apply to someone for whom there seems all hope is lost. But with God, there is always room for redemption and restoration.

“Of the Sons of Korah.” Have you seen that inscription as you’ve read through the Psalms? In fact twelve of the psalms bear that heading. To see the point and the glory of those psalms, it helps to know the history of these men—the Sons of Korah.

In Numbers 16, we read the story of a rebellion by some Israelite men in the Jewish camp traveling to the Promised Land from Egypt. Verses 1-3 tell us that they:

…became insolent and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”

Moses tried to reason with the men, to give them pause because of all that the Lord had done for them, and to warn them. Then he called for them to meet with the Lord carrying their censers for incense. In verses 31-32, after Moses prayed and finished speaking:

“the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah’s men and all their possessions.”

From that time on, no one forgot the judgment of the Lord on Korah and the other men. Yet, when we read in Psalms these creative songs of the Sons of Korah, we realize that God showed His grace to the family line. Even though they lived with the reputation of that incident so many generations before, God used them to glorify Himself and bless all those who subsequently have ever read their words.

I like what Dr. James Montgomery Boice says about this:

For some reason the Sons of Korah were spared, and it seems from their later employment that, in gratitude to God and his mercy, they must have dedicated themselves to producing and performing the music used to praise God at the wilderness tabernacle and later in the temple in Jerusalem. This interesting fact is a reminder that there can be devout children of reprobate fathers, as well as devout fathers with reprobate children, and that no child needs to be kept from serving God because of his or her parents’ sins. ¹

This story must hearten those who have lived with a dark past with remembrances of abusive or ungodly parents and with remembrances from poverty and meaninglessness. God can take even the most damaged people and use them for His glory. Out of their brokenness He can place the wonderful light of His presence so that they gleam like shards of glass in the sunlight.

Even Jesus had to live down the reputation of his hometown. Nazareth:

…stood in disrepute, generally attributed to the people’s lack of culture and rude dialect...[The people] had a bad name among their neighbors for irreligion or some laxity of morals. ²

God calls us to “redeem” those things in our lives ruined by sin—to “salvage” them as He has us. We should rejoice in God’s ability to “make lemonade” out of all the lemons you have to give Him. He wants to show forth from your life His powerful ability to transform that which others would condemn. Praise be to God!

______________________

1 Boice, James Montgomery, Psalms: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996. Vol. 2, pp. 366-367.

2 Unger, Merrill F., Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Chicago: Moody Press, 1961. p. 779.

—Posted: Monday, January 11, 2016