27 March 2013 - zeal commitment

27 March 2013 - zeal commitment

I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my mother’s sons,
because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.

With our culture and our nation moving in the direction that they are this is a reality for which we need to be more and more prepared.  We must be so zealous for the house of the LORD that we don't care how the world sees us.  As the world becomes more darkened it will understand us less and less.  It will prejudge and condemn us with less and less basis.

Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak,
I looked for sympathy, but there was none;
for consolers, not one could I find.

But we shouldn't be empty at such times. We shouldn't feel as if we are relying on our own strength or that it is us versus the world. The LORD wants to fill us with zeal to give us the strength to make it through such times.  Zeal holds fast to the knowledge the God is righteous even when the whole world is moving in the wrong direction.

The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

How do we relate to the world in such times?  Should we wall ourselves off from them in self-imposed ghettos?  No.  We should follow the example of Jesus who bears all the insults of those who blaspheme God more profoundly than anyone.  He extends intimate table fellowship with even the most egregious of the offenders up until the very last.  He is always ready to extend forgiveness:

“He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.

He doesn't push sinners away even when they trample his rights.  He prefers closeness to the sinner to insisting on justice.

I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
My face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.

As for ourselves, we often aren't as innocent as we'd like to think.  We can't consider ourselves solidly on the side of the zealous and the righteous.  For example, if we try to use Jesus as a convenience, a way to improve our own lives, this can be the same as selling him for silver.  In the end our motives are always mixed.  We maintain fellowship with him at his table, but without the purity he desires.  He hungers and thirsts for us but we don't respond in the way he truly desires.

Rather they put gall in my food,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Fortunately, the LORD has the same heart for us that his does for all sinners.  Let us not be like Judas, unrepentant  but instead turn to him for mercy.  We will then see that he does not spurn the poverty of our broken human nature or the bonds of our own sinfulness.  He will hear us.  He will deliver us.  Let us praise him in song!

I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving:
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”