Deuteronomy 4:30-31a: “When thou art in tribulation and all these things come upon thee even in later days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice, (for the Lord thy God is a merciful God) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee.”
When I was a student at Moody Bible Institute, I recall hearing a story about a student who was a full blood Native American. He spent his whole life living on a reservation in the Plaines. Some students decided they were going to show him the big city of Chicago. They took him down the Magnificent Mile during the busiest time of day. The air was filed with the noise of the city, traffic, people etc. Suddenly this Native American student said: “I hear a cricket.” The other students looked at him and asked? “You hear a what?” He replied he heard a cricket and then walked to the end of the block where there was tree in a planter. He dug down into the mulch and pulled up a cricket. Someone asked: “How did you hear a cricket in the midst of all this noise?” The Native American student replied: “It’s all in what you are listening for.” With that he pulled out a quarter and said: “Watch this.” Holding the quarter out he let it drop to the pavement. As soon as the sound of the quarter hitting the pavement was heard, dozens of people walking ahead of them turned their heads to look.
Everyone has a certain button someone can push that really lights their boiler fire. For me it is when I share some struggle in my life and someone will ask, “Well, what is God saying to you?“ Blast it anyways, if I knew what God was saying to me I would not be struggling with that issue. Some people seem to have no problem hearing the voice of God. Well, that is not my story. As I read Deuteronomy 40:30-31 this evening I start to meditate on this matter of hearing God’s voice and I recognized one problem I have in hearing God’s voice. When I am in tribulation and all these things come upon me, I may turn to the Lord, but I have a habit of staying so focused on my tribulations and all the advice of everyone around me that I am not listening for God’s voice. I am beginning to learn that I do not hear the voice of God for the same reason I do not hear the sound of a cricket when I am walking through the Loop in Chicago, I am usually not listening for a cricket. It is the same in my spiritual walk. I realize that sound of God’s voice is there, just as the cricket is, but in truth I am not really listening for the voice of God. I am just focused on me and my tribulations and how to find some peace.
Finding God’s protection during tribulation sounds easy enough according to Deuteronomy 40:30-31, just turn to God and obey his voice. Interesting that the passage says to obey, not listen to His voice. The word for obey that is used in the Hebrew here is shama which means not only to listen but to listen with the intention of obeying. The idea of turning to God is so that we can hear his voice.
The word turn is shuv which has the idea of restoration. Sometimes we do not hear the voice of God because we are too far away and we must return to Him, be restored to Him. “Ok, I figure, maybe I do need to return to God, I need that restoration, but how do I go about that? Do I just say: ‘Lord, here I am, I’ve just turned back to you, so just let’s call it a restoration and you get on with this not forsaking and not destroying me stuff.”
Oh gosh, I think I am just tired, too many problems and struggles with trying to deal with financial, health and job issues. I am about to fall asleep anyway. I will just take one more look at this verse in my Hebrew Bible and… Ok, where is he, where did Shuv (return) go? I glanced over at my Daleth and I saw my Looking Glass swinging back and forth. I knew it, that wiley little Shuv (return) just ran through my Looking Glass into Hebrew Esoteric Land and if I didn’t hurry and follow, I will miss out on an explanation on how to be restored.
With a good head of steam I run for my “Looking Glass” and jump through. Suddenly, I find myself floating in outer space wearing a space suit. At first it seemed pretty exciting, floating around past the sun, moon and stars. But I quickly began to realize there was not much future in all this, you know just floating around in space. There was really no purpose, I was heading nowhere in particular.
Then something bumped into me, it was Shin. He was grinning at me all excited. He held up some moonbeams in a jar. He handed the jar to me and said: “Here, can you hold this for a little while? I am heading over to Vav who is swinging on a star. Curiously I take the jar of moonbeams and follow Shin and sure enough there was a star with Beth connected to the star and Vav sitting on the lower portion of the Beth swinging back and forth. I believe I even heard Bing Crosby singing…no forget it this is just my imagination or some crazy dream, I will wake up in a moment. Yet, it all does seems so real?
When Beth saw me he motioned me over to join him. “What?” I asked “You mean just swing on a star holding these moonbeams in a jar?” Then a rather stern looking Shin pointed to Beth and said: “You see Beth over there, he represents your heart and Beth is fulfilling your heart’s desire, to just swing on a star avoiding all the cares and worries of the day. “Hmmm,” I think, “This swinging on a star business doesn’t sound too bad. I mean without problems there is no need for changes, I think I like that. Shin then looked at me and said, “Listen to your Shin because I represent change, I also represent fire and sometimes you must go through fires to change.” “No, I shant change,” I say defiantly, stooping my foot on a comet, “I don’t want to change, I am happy the way I am.” “Really,” said Shin with a nasty look on his face. Oh my, you do not want to ever meet an angry Shin, I mean they represent fire and if you get on the wrong side of a Shin you can get burned. “Ok,” continued Shin, “If that is the case then just hand over that jar of moonbeams which are filled with all your dreams and hopes and you can just swing on this star for the rest of your life and be no better than you are for all I care. You see that Vav over there sitting on the Beth swinging that star? He is your connection to heaven and so long as you don’t accept my help (change) Vav and you will just sit on that Beth swinging on that old star and you will never be connected to heaven to hear God’s voice. Without me Shin (change), Vav will just be a conjunction without a connection and Beth will be just be a plain old preposition with no object, no heart to join with.”
I thought about this. The first letter in Shuv (return, restoration) was the Shin, or change. With the Shin or willingness to accept change the Shin can empower Vav to connect Beth, my heart, to heaven and to God. When that happens I can be restored to God, hear His voice and carry my moonbeams home in my jar.
I tightly gripped my moonbeams in the jar and looked at Shin and said: “I still have a lot of moonbeams (dreams, hopes) in this jar. Ok, go ahead and order Vav to connect Beth my heart to God so he can fulfill my dreams once my connection with God is restored. Shin suddenly lit up with fire like a star and asked: “Even if I have to use some of my Shin fire to bring about that change?” I gulp clinging to my moonbeams and say, “Bring it on so long as it will connect (Vav) me to God so I can hear His voice in my heart (Beth)”
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