Taking the King’s Help?

Mike Leake

21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. 22 For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” 23 So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.

I am deeply humbled by Ezra and his companions here.  It was the desire of his heart to display the glory of God to the Persian king.  They wanted the king to know that God was powerful enough and loving enough to protect His people.  And in so doing they rejected the path of least resistance and decided to do the “risky” thing and trust God. 

In applying this I want to be careful not to make this more prescriptive than it actually is.  There are many places in Scripture that are simply descriptive (they describe things as they were, for a specific situation at a specific time).  If we are not careful we can try to make descriptive things as if they are prescriptive (every person in every place at every time should do them).  So, I want to avoid this. 

Having said that I believe there is much we can learn from Ezra here.  I fear that if I were in this particular situation I would have taken the path of least resistance and asked for the kings help.  The solution would seem so obvious:

We need protection + The king is offering protection = We use the king’s offered protection. 

Then I could even make it sound spiritual by saying God uses means to accomplish his purposes and He provided the kings protection against the enemies.  And that would actually be true, because you can find a host of other places in Scripture where God does protect the people of God by using means such as the protection of a foreign king. 

At the end of the day I am not certain that there is a formula for when you should take the kings help and when you should take the Ezra route and reject the kings help depending on God to provide apart from these means.  But what I do see from Ezra is that his chief aim was that God be glorified.  I also see that he pursued humility and absolute dependence before the Lord.  For Ezra the solution looked like this:

We want to display God’s glory + We already told the king God would do this + we do not want the king to take credit for God’s work = therefore we will refuse his help, humble ourselves and fast before the Lord, trusting in Him to provide safety. 

So, while there may not be a formula I am confident that when we are growing in our desire to display God’s glory above our own, and when we are growing in humble dependence upon the LORD, he will answer our questions Himself and not necessarily a formula. 

Remembering that God Remembers

Mike Leake

For half a year Noah and his family have been holed up in a boat made of gopher wood.  Tense times we sure to be had.  Because Noah and his family took their sinful nature inside the boat with them, I’m certain that there were plenty of spats that would come from being stuck together in the same place for an extended period of time.  Or maybe not.  Regardless of the atmosphere inside the boat we read these redemptive words in Genesis 8:

But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.

Now when you read the word “remembered” its not to be compared to you and I suddenly remembering that we have a pizza in the oven.  It’s not as if God was sitting at home watching the Evan Almighty and suddenly realized…”Oh, snap!  Noah!  I better go rescue him”.

No, when you see the word “remembered” typically in Scripture it means something more profound.  As my trust ESV Study Bible notes on Genesis 8, “When the Bible says that God ‘remembers’ someone or his covenant with someone, it indicates that he is about to take action for that person’s welfare”. 

When God “remembers” someone he is going to set himself to work on their behalf.  In this particular case God is going to take action to soak up all the water, rescue Noah and his family, and renew the earth. 

I need God to remember me today.  I need God to remember me every day.  I not only need him to “remember that I am but dust” I also need him to “remember when you come into your kingdom”.  I need God to work on my behalf today.  I need to remember that unless God remembers me I have no hope.  And I also need to remember that “at one time I was separated from Christ…but now I have been brought near”. 

Remember today that Christ in you is a sign that God remembers you.  And if you know God remembers you, then you know that He is steadily working on your behalf.

The Two Versions of Peter

Mike Leake

Last night I preached through Mark 14 and considered Peter’s denial of Jesus.  It is amazing that Peter was so cowardly, embarrassed, and ashamed of Jesus before a lowly servant girl.  One could understand Peter’s denial a little more had this been a ruler or someone that held his life in their hands.  But this is a question from a servant girl.  (Perhaps, he feared that she would tell her master and this would get him in trouble).  Regardless the reasons, Peter—though he thought himself bold—found it quite easy to keep his mouth shut about knowing Jesus, and then when exposed he flat out denied knowing Him. 

Contrast that with today’s reading in Acts 4.  Standing before perhaps the same people that he was afraid of less than a year ago, Peter says this:

18 So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge,20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

So what’s the difference between these two experiences?  Pentecost. 

Peter now has the promised Spirit (yes the same Spirit that you and I have) that will embolden him to speak and preach the gospel…even in the face of death. 

So today I pray that through the power of the Spirit the Lord would cause me to be the Peter in Acts 4 and not the coward of Mark 14. 

Snot Rockets Are Normal East of Eden

Mike Leake 1 Comment

We’ve all had a booger moment.  Let me explain.

A booger moment is that moment when you realize that people weren’t laughing at your jokes they were laughing at the snot rocket projecting out of your nose.  Or it’s that moment when you realize that the students that you were preaching to were not uncharacteristically focused on the message because you had really good content.  No, they were focused because your pants were unzipped. 

I remember one particular occasion in High School when I was talking (that’s what the kids these days call flirting) to a girl that I liked as I was walking to my car.  It seemed to be going really well.  I was putting my super awesome moves on.  I was certain that I’d score a date at some point very soon.  As I was basking in my awesomeness I decided to check the mirror just so I could share my awesomeness with an agreeing face.  To my horror I had a lovely dangling booger hanging out my nose.  Not cool.  Suddenly I looked at the world much different.  I’d probably never talk to this girl again just out of the sheer horror that she might bring up the atrocious event that just occurred. 

Don’t pretend that you haven’t had a million moments like this.  This is why many of us have had that dream about being naked before History class.  There is something innate in humans to put up a facade and project an image that is better than reality.  Deep down we all know that it isn’t true and reality haunts us. 

This all stems from our first parents.  Up until Genesis 3:7 Adam and Eve were blissfully unaware of their nakedness.  Then sin entered in.  Their solution was the same solution that we have come up with in a million different ways—they decided to sew some fig leaf underpants.  They tried to hide their sin and shame.  They tried to pretend that they weren’t naked before the Lord. 

But it didn’t work.  It never does.  You an I may be able to hide our nakedness before other people but we cannot hide it before God.  Who you are isn’t the image that you project before people.  Who you really are is who you are alone before Almighty God.  And these little experiences of being exposed with a booger hanging out your nose are just little reminders that fig-leaf underpants don’t work. 

The only thing that really covers our nakedness is the garments that the LORD provides.  Notice in Genesis 3:21 that God provides garments for the man and woman.  This is a foreshadowing of the garments of righteousness that will be provided by the Lord Jesus.  In fact Christ Himself is that garment.  The blood that was shed to provide clothing for Adam and Eve is a prefiguring of the blood that will be shed milleniums later outside Jerusalem to finally and fully cover the nakedness of God’s people.

The question for us today is this, am I covered by Jesus or am I simply sewing fig-leaf underpants for myself.  This is more than a “have you been saved” type of question.  Because once we are saved that begins the process of trading in our tattered and weak attempts at covering for the precious garments provided by Christ.  So where are you hiding?  And how will you go about giving that shame to Jesus so that He can cover it with more than a pathetic band-aid of human pride and hiding?

For more check out this past post: Fig Leaf Underpants.