Orderly Chaos

“¹ My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. ² Keep my commands and live, And my law as the apple of your eye. ³ Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. ⁴ Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister,’ And call understanding your nearest kin.” (Proverbs 7: 1–4)

How should we treat the words of God?

• “Treasure my commands within you“: Like a treasure that we bury deep within us.
• “[Keep] my law as the apple of your eye“: To filter what we see and value, favouring God’s values first.
• “Bind them on your fingers“: To remember to be discerning when we do things.
• “Write them on the tablet of your heart“: Keep them permanently inscribed in your thoughts and decisions.
• “Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister,’ And call understanding your nearest kin“: Keep them close to you, and get to know them very well; to not give them up when they don’t agree with your liking or force you out of your comfort zone.

Basically, keep them very close, and use them to filter our whole selves: Our thoughts and actions.

“¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep—¹¹ So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.” (Proverbs 6: 10–11)

Nothing shows this verse to us like.. holidays! Well, more like the few weeks that you don’t need to go to the workplace, but you still have work to do. With no pressure on a daily-basis, it’s so easy to let go of yourself, and soon you’ll realise that the holiday is over, and you’ve not really done much to show for the past few weeks.

I’m horrible at this.. =.=

“¹³ Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her, for she is your life.” (Proverbs 4:13 NKJV)

It’s always hard when you stop a habit (eg. reading the Bible) and try to pick it up again (haha..); therefore, one should take a firm hold and never let go. Of course, not only the habit, but also what wisdom and learning you get out of it.

“¹ My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, ² So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; ³ Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, ⁴ If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; ⁵ Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God.” (Pro 2:1–5 NKJV)

All of these actions are active, not passive: To receive, to treasure, to incline, to apply, to cry out, to lift up, to seek and search. Do that, and we can understand how to fear God, and understand His will.

“⁸ But as for me, I would seek God, And to God I would commit my cause. …  ¹⁷ Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.” (Job 5:8, 17 NKJV)

Some of us (including me) will sometimes do something, and then come and ask for approval/forgiveness afterwards. Mainly because we are afraid that if we ask, our request will be denied, and then we can’t pretend to be ignorant and do it anyway. But, if we pass our intentions before God, we give Him the chance to correct us; He, who knows all the possible outcomes and consequences and collaterals of our intention. If what we want to do has a hidden downside, why not give God the chance to tell us?

“¹⁷ ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?’” (Job 4:17 NKJV)

We are not more righteous than God, therefore we cannot make a correct judgement of others. We are not more pure than God, therefore we do not have any authority to make a judgement of others.

“¹³⁹ My zeal has consumed me, Because my enemies have forgotten Your words.” (Psalm 119:139 NKJV)

Yesterday I had a bit of an argument with a friend over an aspect of his divine work recently (yes, details are deliberately vague). His response gave off a feeling of disinterest (probably because he was tired), so I pressed the matter further to try to remind him of the few people in church who critically rely on his work.

In the end, we both became unhappy. I’m not sure if he got the gist of my reasoning, although he said, through slightly gritted teeth, that he thanks me for my advice and he’ll consider his work more carefully.

Should zeal for the Lord’s work cause such a ruckus? The matter didn’t warrant such an aftermath, and I’m sure he was just tired that day, yet his attitude didn’t sit right with me, so I felt compelled to let him know. I reflected on the events last night, and concluded that I’d probably pressed him too hard, and there wasn’t much he could’ve said that would’ve prevented me from my mini-tirade, since it was more his attitude I was worried about, and that wouldn’t have changed while he was still tired.

Zeal should consume us when enemies have forgotten the Lord’s words, yes, but should it do the same when our friends have a moment’s tiredness/weakness?

“¹ There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. ² And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. ³ Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.” (Job 1:1–3 NKJV)

Here is a “blameless and upright” man, “one who feared God and shunned evil“. This was the introduction given to Job. Only after this did it mention his large family, wealth, and status. Many people run after these before they pursue God, and in the end they find either disaster or vanity. Therefore, we should learn to be like Isaac, building an altar before pitching his tent and digging his well, to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mt 6:33).

Yet we must also remember: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21 NKJV) God has His own plan for us, one which will ultimately be beneficial to us. So be careful that we do not “sin or charge God with wrong” in our tribulation!

“²⁷ The Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would join them, that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year, according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time, ²⁸ that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants.” (Esther 9:27–28 NKJV)

After the near-disaster of Haman’s genocide, the Jews remembered the day that God delivered them from their enemies. They established and imposed it upon themselves; they didn’t wait for God to command them to remember the day. Them, and their descendants would celebrate this without fail, and the memory should not period in the future. So we need to actively recount God’s graces, and remember it without fail. Then, in times of tribulation, we can think back to how God has helped us in the past, that our faith can be strengthened instead of overcome.

“¹⁰ Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” (Luke 16:10 NIV1984)

Sometimes we only seem to trust God with the big items (terminal illnesses, marriage, career changes, buying a house), and we end up with a too-small-to-bother-God mentality. But what Jesus said can also be applied to God; if we can learn to trust Him in small matters (colds and headaches, daily life, getting the groceries safely, etc), then we’ll be able to trust Him better when the going gets tough.