I found today's reading quite interesting, if a bit repetitive. King David is feeling a bit guilty for living in a palace of cedar, while the Ark of the Covenant resides in a tent. So God tells David, by way of the prophet Nathan, that it isn't his place to build God a house, but that his son will rule after him, build God's house, and be loved by God forever. "Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever." (2 Sam. 7:16) It must have been wonderful for King David to hear this and he prayed a most humble and grateful prayer. My favourite verse from the prayer was verse 22 - "How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears." (emphasis mine)
Psalm 60 from today's reading ends with the following two verses:
11 Give us aid against the enemy,
for the help of man is worthless.
12 With God we will gain the victory,
and he will trample down our enemies.
Sometimes it seems that we try and try to accomplish things or get somewhere where we think we should be going and are endlessly frustrated by obstacles and things turning out differently than we expect. Perhaps we can take a lesson from King David in these passages and try to keep in mind (in spite of our short human attention span) that we must inquire of God what is his will and trust in his timing. I don't know where the saying "The Lord helps those who help themselves," came from, but it's not Biblical. In fact, here's what a couple of websites had to say about it.
BlueLetterBible.org -
The saying, "God helps those who help themselves," came to us by way of Benjamin Franklin (1736). Franklin himself was a deist and so he believed that God did not play an active role in men's lives. In his point of view if man was not able to help himself, then man was hopeless.
The Bible teaches something entirely different than the above saying, because God makes special provision to help the helpless.
Romans 5:6, 8
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly....But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Proverbs 28:26
He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,
But he who walks wisely will be delivered.
Jeremiah 17:5
Thus says the LORD,
"Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the LORD.
Acts 17-11.com:
"God helps those who help themselves!"
Hezekiah 6:1
This verse, of course, is not in the Bible. Hezekiah sounds plausible enough, but is not a real book of scripture. "Yeah! That's from the book of Hezekiah, isn't it?" is the code-word for these kinds of phantom texts.
This would seem old news by now, but just recently a friend of ours was scandalized when we told her this "verse" did not exist.
More important, this "verse" is unbiblical in its meaning. It is exactly the opposite of the message of scripture.
Jer 17:5 (NIV) This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD."
Prov 28:26 (NIV) He who trusts in himself is a fool...
Tomorrow's reading is 2 Samuel 8:15-18, 1 Chronicles 18:14-17, 1 Chronicles 6:16-30, 1 Chronicles 6:50-53, 1 Chronicles 6:31-48, 2 Samuel 9-10:19, and 1 Chronicles 19:1-19.
2 comments:
Thanks Miriam.
I do think we can also take the opposite extreme and pray to God to "fix" things and then just sit and wait for a miracle.
Both attitudes are wrong. As usual, balance is the key. We need to recognize that we can do nothing without God and His strenght. We need to rely on the power of prayer. But then we need to step forward and act as well.
And I know that you would agree :)
Oh, of course. I didn't mean to imply that we should just sit back and expect God to do everything. After all, God may have given David and his men victory, but he didn't actually wield their swords. We are always responsible for our own actions or lack thereof. We just need to try to remember to make our decisions prayerfully, seeking to follow God's will.
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