Setting the Table

 

They [the Israelites] spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the desert?”

—Psalm 78:19 NIV

I know something about setting a table. After all, as a Junior High 4-H member, I earned a merit badge by giving a demonstration about how to set a table. Ever since that time, more than just about any other preparation, I find that I enjoy setting the table for guests. I also like restaurants that use real tablecloths, cloth napkins, and decent silverware—the kind of establishment whose accoutrements say: “We prepared for your visit.”

Particularly in the Bible, what does a beautiful table with lavish food represent? I believe that, most of all, it denotes a hospitable welcome.

In verses that speak of God and the table, we see that the guests are honored by the preparation. Even when we live among our enemies, as in Psalm 23:5, God says to them in effect, “Look who I love and honor.”

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

As a result of the invitation to Christ’s table, we can delight in His lavish provision. Please note these words from Song of Songs 2:3-5:

I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love. Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.

Not only have I set a table, I have lived in the desert. Oh, not a desert with sand and heat. But, one of waiting for God, one of hospital corridors, one of surrounding enemies, and one of unfulfilled dreams. In these places, I come with faith to God, and say:

“Please, O Lord, spread me a table in this place.”

And, by His grace, He does!

 

 

Stuck in a Snowbank

 

Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

—Isaiah 50:10

As a child, I can remember a few times getting “stuck” in the snow. Sometimes the snow banks towered above the cars on the road. So, it was no wonder that the occupants of a stuck vehicle would need help from a tractor or truck to pull them out.

There have been times in my adult life when I’ve felt like my life has been driven into a snow bank. At such times it seemed as if I had no way forward and no way back, and that I had no ability to even see out of the windows! In those times, I have had no choice but to call on the Lord to help me out of the perplexing circumstances surrounding me and making me feel stuck.

If you’ve ever waited for a tow truck to come to your rescue, you know that you often wait for what seems like a very long time. In the same way, God sometimes makes us wait for His coming to rescue us, too.

God has told us in Hebrews 13:5:

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Though we cannot see where we are, or where we are going, we can know He will be there beside us and, when we need His help, He will rescue us. No matter how dark this winter experience of our lives may seem, eventually God will bring us the newness of spring.

We don’t like to put our trust into whatever we cannot see, touch, feel, hear, or taste. But, if we rely totally on our five senses to help us trust God, we are not exercising faith.

Remember the story recorded about the Disciple Thomas, whose absence from the meeting where the risen Lord appeared prompted him to say, as recorded in John 20:25:

“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it [the resurrection].”

The following week, Thomas joined the other Disciples when Jesus appeared again. Jesus had Thomas use his senses of sight and touch to verify the nail holes and scars in Jesus’s side. Then, Jesus said to Thomas, as recorded in John 20:29:

“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

All of us need more faith. An ever-deepening of our faith becomes a hallmark of our Christian formation. When we find ourselves buried in some “snow drift” of life with no way out—and when we have no sense of where we are or where we are headed—we must remember to pray the words spoken by the father of the boy possessed by an impure spirit, found in Mark 9:24:

“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

 

 

Firstfruits

 

“Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.”

—Exodus 23:19

More practical than connoisseur, my father balked at the idea that the first run from his farm’s sugarbush was the “best” maple syrup of the season. He reacted because all of the runs of sap produced good syrup. And, all product relied on the same productive quality: hard physical labor. Even so, that first production run of maple syrup bears the name “Fancy” because of its somewhat lighter quality.

The Bible has much to say about the “first,” when comparing it to the “best.” We read of the “firstborn,” the “first day of the week” (Resurrection Day), and of course, “firstfruits.”

The prophet Malachi has much to say about the offerings God’s people were bringing into the Temple to present to Him. Please take note the warning that God gave His people, as found in Malachi 1:12-13, and as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in The Message.

“Instead of honoring me, you profane me. You profane me when you say, ‘Worship is not important, and what we bring to worship is of no account,’ and when you say, ‘I’m bored—this doesn’t do anything for me.’ You act so superior, sticking your noses in the air—act superior to me, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies! And when you do offer something to me, it’s a hand-me-down, or broken, or useless. Do you think I’m going to accept it? This is GOD speaking to you!” ¹

This passage of Scripture reminds me of what the mother of a children’s choir member I once taught said to me when I required better attendance at rehearsals than I received:

“It’s only church, for heaven’s sake!”

She really didn’t understand. Far too many of us need to pause and consider what we offer to God. “Good enough” is simply not acceptable to Him.

One of the first stories in the Bible reveals the offerings that Cain and Abel brought to God. According to Genesis 4:3-5:

In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

This failure to bring God the very best—the firstfuits—and to offer God precisely what He required resulted in jealousy instead of humility and repentance. And, this jealousy led to the first murder in history!

Whether it is the first hour of our day, or the first day of our week, the first chunk of our paycheck, or the first consideration of our labor, if we call ourselves Christians, all of those “firstfruits” belong to the Lord.

From beginning to end, the Scriptures repeat that admonition. In Revelation 2:4, God spoke to one of the earliest congregations:

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”

This first month of another new year gives us a great time to review our offerings, along with our attitudes toward all that we have and do. Have we determined that the best of the things we have and do belong to God? Can we say with the ancient hymn:

“Thou and Thou only, first in my heart, High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.” ²

______________________

1 Peterson, Eugene. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, Carol Stream, IL: Nav Press, 2002.

2 Be Thou My Vision, ancient Irish hymn, translated by Mary E. Byrne. Text in the Public Domain.

 

 

The Feet of Jesus

 

And God placed all things under his [Jesus] feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

—Ephesians 1:22-23

Chubby, cute, no callouses, so soft to the touch—don’t you just love playing with a baby’s feet? Mary must have enjoyed playing with Jesus’ feet when He was a baby and watching Him toddle around on them to everyone’s delight. He came to earth and experienced the same stumbles and falls as any other baby His age.

Just as we experienced as children, as the child Jesus grew, His feet took Him to ever widening paths. Eventually, His feet took Him away from His mother and into a life of ministry for the purpose of serving His heavenly Father.

As Jesus walked the Galilean hills, or the streets of Jerusalem, teaching and persuading others to follow Him, His sandals would have gotten muddy or dusty. People surrounded Jesus wherever He went. They saw His miraculous healings and the signs He displayed of the Kingdom of God.

One such miracle happened in the family of some of His closest friends—Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary. Jesus received a report that his friend, Lazarus, had died. By the time Jesus reached Lazarus’ home, the body had already been buried. By simply speaking to the dead man, Jesus raised him from the dead. (John 11:1-44)

Some time later, Jesus dined at the home of Lazarus and his sisters. The Apostle John narrates the event this way, found in John 12:3:

Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Mary truly worshipped at Jesus’ feet and poured out her love literally in the form of an expensive perfume. What a wonderful ministry to her Lord, expressing thanks for all He had done just days before His most cruel hours, and honoring the preservation of His body in the forthcoming death.

We know that Jesus’ feet were nailed to the cross during the crucifixion—those feet with so much of a history of love. He willingly allowed those feet to suffer for the sins of all mankind.

By the mighty power of God, Jesus was resurrected on that first Easter. And forty days later, His disciples watched as His body, including His feet, were taken up in the clouds of heaven. As the verse at the beginning of this blog post reminds us: God put everything under Jesus’ feet.

Jesus had conquered sin, Satan, and death for us. His earthly work was finished. What a sight: to see those blessed feet lifted to heaven and to declare to everyone His conquering love.

 

 

Get Your Hopes Up!

 

“So I say, ‘My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord’ …  The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.”

—Lamentations 3:18, 25 (emphasis added)

I must have been twelve or so—the age when most girls start to worry about their appearance and whether or not they will fit in with their friends. I had asked for a certain kind of sweater for Christmas and literally didn’t care about receiving anything much else besides it.

Christmas Day came with the usual excitement and anticipation. Our family celebrated and gave gifts—and, after opening my gifts, I was shocked to realize that I had not received the greatly desired sweater. As a mopey teen, I clearly showed my disappointment. I even have a photograph to prove it! How could my parents have heard my distinct request and not fulfilled it?

Two days later, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins got together for our annual extended family Christmas dinner and gift giving. Our large table was filled with all sorts of delightful dishes. We enjoyed lots of laughter and conversation. Once the dishes were done—it took so long in those days because we had no dish washer—we sat down to open presents.

Imagine my delight and surprise when the person who had drawn my name gave me the sweater. And not just the sweater, but the exact style, color, and size I had wanted! How foolish I felt for ruining my Christmas Day feeling sorry for myself and for doubting my parents’ careful love for me.

Many years later, I read the verses from Lamentations that I have quoted above at the beginning of this blog post. I realized then that God doesn’t want us to think of Him as an indulgent “Santa Claus,” who promptly gives His children everything for which they hope. Instead, He wants us to place our hope in Him and leave the actual details of meeting our genuine needs to His great wisdom.

The Scriptures tell us in Romans 15:13 that God is a God of hope:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This kind of hope is an amalgam of joy, peace, and trust in our God. This kind of hope produces in us a much deeper sense of belief than just a child-like expectancy that comes whenever a girl blows out all her birthday cake candles wishing for something very special.

During this Christmas season, and throughout the year ahead, whether or not we receive from God all for which we hope, may we learn to hope in Him and be at peace with the decisions He makes in our behalf.