"...My ways are not your ways". And HOW!

God’s ways are different than our ways…

As high as the heavens are higher than earth, His ways are higher.  His thoughts are not our thoughts.  His plans are not our plans.  (Isaiah 55:8,9)

This is a constant theme on my heart.  The foundation on which God is building my life and giving me a vision, albeit blurry in many areas, of what He wants for me.  And I am satisfied with that.  There have been times when it has been difficult to walk contrary to the world, particularly concerning choices that are highly unpopular even among the majority of American Christians today.  

The world has such a way of convincing us of what is important.  We see the lifestyle, we hear the arguments, the reasoning and logic that convinces us to live life the way they do, to make decisions based on the same motivating factors and using the same principles.  We live within a structure that almost demands conformity. 

But God calls us to something different.  The book of Proverbs is filled with wisdom about how we are to live our lives, the entire book compares and contrasts the wicked and the righteous, the foolish and the wise.  Romans 12:1-2 tells us not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we can know what the perfect will of God is.  This is not a suggestion, nor does it imply that it will simply happen by default if we’re saved…this requires action on our part.  This requires that we pluck out the eyes that offend us and put on the vision that God has for our world, for us, the vision that we can only acquire through diligent study of the Word and through prayer, with a heart that is willing to surrender anything and everything.  While we live within the world, we are not supposed to conform to it; our lives should literally contrast with the world the way that light contrasts with darkness. (John 15:9, Matt. 5:14)

What does that look like?  I understand that it’s hard to wrap our minds around this concept.  How exactly are our lives going to look different?   There are so many passages in scripture that tell us how to live: how we should treat people, how we should handle our money; there is so much instruction that touches every area of our lives.  But some seriously powerful examples come to mind from scripture, simple stories that we’ve all heard but perhaps never really believed apply to us.  The foundational lesson in each of them is this:  when God has a plan, when He does something, He does not do it the way we would.  He does not use man’s wisdom or skill to accomplish His plans.  

I think of the story of Exodus.  

God’s chosen people were being called out of bondage to be led into the land that God had promised His people for generations.  When God began the process of calling the Israelites out of Egypt He did not choose a leader that would make sense to any of us.   

Not only did he choose a murderer on the run from Egypt, he chose a murderer on the run who had trouble simply speaking!  God did not use any great skills that Moses had developed through a lifetime of hard work and discipline, God instead empowered Moses miraculously to do things that only the creator and ruler of the world could do.   

I want to consider for a moment the first meeting between Moses and the leaders of the Israelites.  Of course they wanted out!  From historical accounts and what the bible says we know that Israel was large enough to put up quite a fight with the Egyptians.  In fact, to try to put the kibosh on such a possibility, Pharaoh killed a generation of Israelite boys and kept the rest of them too busy and weary to even think straight!   They were large enough and well equipped enough that they could have taken the chance to fight their way out.  The leaders could have rallied a militia and strategically planned an escape, maybe it would have been easier to simply stay and fight for control of the land they were already working instead of trying to leave…that is, I believe, how we might go about it.  

But

God had a plan that didn’t involve any of that.  You know the story of Exodus.  The plagues that no man could cause, the establishment of the Passover which ultimately pointed to Christ…a display of His own power and might, setting a clear distinction between His people and all the rest…

I watched a secular show once about the Israelite’s journey out of Egypt and it was said that the path they chose was extremely illogical.  From point A to point B they took a very indirect route—one obvious roadblock being the Red Sea.  If the leaders of Israel had planned the escape there is no way they would have chosen the path they ended up on.  But because they followed God and His plan, they got to experience His greatness and power!  Now, not only did they get to be a part of such an awesome miracle as the parting of the Red Sea, God intended to use it to ‘finish off’ the Egyptians in such a way that an army never could.  You know how the story ended (if not, read it!).

The people of Israel then had the awesome privilege of following God’s literal presence (in a pillar of smoke and a pillar of fire).  It’s clear from the pages we read in Exodus that the people DID NOT understand what God was doing.  They whined about walking too long, too far.  They whined about camping for too long, ‘why aren’t we moving forward?!?’ they wondered.   God provided them with nutritionally perfect food from heaven, not only was it good for them and exactly what they needed, it was SWEET!  It’s not like he had them eating nothing but radishes…and yet…they whined. 

After innumerable adventures and learning experiences... 

At last, the time came that the Promised land was within their reach.   

I want to note something about this Promise, this plan, that God had for His people.  It required little effort on their part.  God was not providing for them a land in which they would have to build houses and plant crops, He was providing them with a land that was already prepared!   This means something to me   :)

After everything that they had experienced you’d think that the Israelites would have understood God’s capabilities and happily pranced into the Promised Land!  but no…they whined.   

“There are giants in there!”   

“What are we going to do?!” 

"Back in Egypt we were safe and comfortable!" 

They were overwhelmed with practical fears, nothing we can blame them for from a logical standpoint.  They didn’t want their children to be killed there, or to become slaves, who would?  They were keenly aware of the fact that they didn’t have what it would take to accomplish such a task as taking over the land they were being given.  They knew that they were not equipped with anything necessary to fight for and win a land inhabited by giants.  

But they had forgotten that God did.

So they wandered the wilderness until they died--almost all of them.   

40 years later we see a generation who did not experience God’s power and miracles the way their parents had, and yet they had faith to take the Promised Land when God told them it was time.  It’s at this point that we find another story that reveals how dramatically different God’s ways are than our ways.  

Joshua was a man of great faith, he knew God’s goodness and power, he knew God’s plans and he wanted them.  He was a remnant of the generation that died in the wilderness, given the chance to inherit the promise because of his faithfulness.  He inspired the rest of the people by his faith and strong leadership.  Historians say that Joshua was a great military commander (how they know this, I don’t know!) yet once again we see how God ignores human wisdom and reason.  I’m sure military strategists could explain a number of possible options for taking Jericho, a city with tall, strong walls and towers, guarded by trained warriors.  A number of conquerors have succeeded at such feats in history and it is incredible what men can conceive and accomplish…

But God didn’t tell them to do anything that a strategist may have suggested in those days, or even now.  Joshua, the tremendous leader that he was, did not formulate a plan of attack. 

God told them to march around the city wall seven times and then blow trumpets and shout!  

Sounds like a ridiculous battle plan...I have to wonder what the Israelites were thinking as they marched around Jericho,

‘We must look like a bunch of dorks…’ 

And I can only imagine what the people of Jericho thought of the spectacle!  But boy, I’m sure they were surprised when those walls came crashing down.  Can you imagine the thrill that the Israelites felt as their faith went from a heart hope in God and His promises to a very real and tangible knowledge of His power in that moment?  Incredible.

Since that day there were many more notable examples given in scripture—too many to list!  But the common thread in all of them is that God’s plan always looks different, and sometimes His plan doesn’t even make the least bit of human sense, seeming foolish or imprudent.  (I think of Naaman, the leper, and Gideon).

 But the ‘heroes’ of these stories all made a choice…they chose to shut their eyes and ears to the wisdom of the world, even to their own wisdom and “common sense”, and chose God’s way instead. They all forsook their own worries and cares, their practical concerns, their plans and ideas, even their pride, and chose to trust.  And they all reaped the rewards of doing so.   

The characters in these stories that we look at now, hindsight being 20/20, that aren’t so heroic (but we might consider STUPID) are the ones who failed to remember God’s character and what He’d already done to prove His intentions.  Namely, the Israelites who died in the desert, whose example should scare us into studying ourselves by asking questions like these:

Do I really know who God is?

Do I really believe that He has a plan for me and am I following Him into it?  Am I willing to?

How has the world and the cares of life affected the choices that I make and how faithfully I follow God?

Am I planning my life within the framework of the world, or am I entrusting my life to the God who created me for a purpose?

Is my life conformed to the world and its expectations of me?  Or am I being transformed and renewed?   

Does my life contrast with the world? 

Do I experience the power of God in my life?  

Do I KNOW the what the perfect will of God is? (Romans 12:2)

These are just a few of the questions that I’ve had to ask myself, often, each time I catch myself believing that I need to have my “ducks in a row” before I make a change God has put on my heart, and each time that He calls me to do something that is ‘counter-cultural’ or a little scary!  Like entrusting Him with our money and how we spend it, our job choices, our children and how we raise them…

I pray that we won't build our lives within a framework of any kind, but that we would experience the FREEDOM of following God where he leads with a firm foundation of faith.       

Hosea 1:7, “But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah and I will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.”  (I read this verse right after writing this, and HAD to add it!  It’s too apropos not to.)