So it's been forever since I've blogged and now that I am I'm not even posting my own thoughts. But this is too good not to share. Written by my dear friend, Breaker, I hope it inspires much thought and encouragement. You can check out her blog here.
So... a topic got highlighted to me today, and it's just consuming my
heart with its implications! I've heard these verses before, but wanted
to explore them deeper with Papa, since I know Him better now.
I was reading a blog and the following came up--
"Ruth’s a Moabite–the text won’t let us forget that–and her ancestors
refused to give hospitality in the form of bread and water to the
Israelites as they left Egypt.
This insult led to a prohibition against the Moabites in Deuteronomy 23:3
“No [...] Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.
Even to the tenth generation [Hebrew-Bible-speak for, 'seriously, not
ever!'] none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of
the Lord.”
Complicates things a bit, no?
Boaz doesn’t say, “Oh, hey, I’m sorry for your bad situation, Ruth,
but your ancestors insulted mine, so I’m biblically required to do the
same to you.” No.
He breaks a ‘biblical’ law to fulfill a Greater Law in sharing bread with Ruth.
And then he marries her."
Breaking the biblical law to fulfill the Greater, unspoken one. Hmm!
Reminds me of the White Witch's argument of legality to take Edmund
because of his treachery. She knew the Deep Magic from the dawn of time.
The "rules" that the Emperor Beyond the Sea wrote to govern the world.
Just as real as what goes up comes down, sin begets detriment.
But what did Aslan say after the Stone Table cracked? There is an even
deeper magic that the Witch knew nothing of. The law of Love.
The accuser was created as Lucifer to witness creation and all the laws
written into our world. Lucifer understood earth, water, wind, fire, and
spirit. But. Lucifer did not understand Love. He didn't witness it,
because it always was. Love is God. God is Love. And for him to have
fought with Love the way he did and does, Love is completely missing
from his book. He seeks to replace it with Power, which only goes so
far...
Anyhoo! We are created from Papa's spirit, and coming into relationship
with Him fully, we complete His heart again. We have a unique
relationship with Him! We get to co-create, like sitting on His lap
steering as He pushes the pedals....(I really hope none of this is
blasphemous, because these are just a lot of my little perceptions and
dreams and impressions of Papa pasted together. My imaginings.=)
Related, I wanted to look up the other verses about to God "changing His mind" and humans helping do that.
This is pasted from another website.
In Exodus 32:9-10 God tells Moses, “I have seen these stiff-necked
people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and
that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
(I think Papa said this because He was dying for Moses to do what he
did next! He didn't sit down and accept the doom prophecy for what it
said, he believed in Love and that Love would forgive, and even if God
should smite him, he stood for those who needed forgiveness! Years
before Jesus, Moses said "Father, forgive them!!")
In verse 12 Moses actually told God, “Turn from your anger and change
your mind about harming your people.”The word that is translated in this
verse “change your mind” is a Hebrew word meaning “to repent,” “to have
pity” or “to feel sorrow or regret for something.”Verse 14 tells us,
“So the Lord changed his mind about the harm which he said he would do
to his people.”
Consider the following passages as well:
Jeremiah 26:3
“Perhaps they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way, that
I may repent of the calamity which I am planning to do to them.”
Jeremiah 26:19
“Did he not fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, and the
LORD changed His mind about the misfortune which He had pronounced
against them?”
Amos 7:2-3
“I said, ‘Lord GOD, please pardon! How can Jacob stand, For he is
small?’ The LORD changed His mind about this. It shall not be," said the
LORD.”
Jonah 3:10
“When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then
God repented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would
bring upon them. And He did not do it.”
Ezekiel 18:23 tells us that, like all good parents, God “has no
pleasure” in punishing his children, but rather wishes for them to turn
from their evil ways and walk rightly, so that they might enjoy his
life."
Ok....Then what are we supposed to make of this??!
Malachi 3:6 "For I am the Lord; I change not."
Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent."
Ezekiel 24:14 "I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I
will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I
repent."
James 1:17 " . . . the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
HE DOES NOT CHANGE. HE. WHO HE IS. HIS NATURE, HIS ESSENCE. That is what
does not change. And of all the things describing our Papa in the
Bible, the one that I find to be the most resonate, the most profound,
and the most biblical (really) is that He is LOVE. He has always been
love, and will always be love.
I think... and think with humility... that the "Thus sayith the Lord"
doom and gloom prophecies were ones which MIGHT come true if current
choices did not change. It's like telling a child, "If you don't stop
hitting your sibling, you will go into time-out." The unspoken there is
the Love. The nature of the parent is, "My dear child, I so enjoy
watching you play in the sand! Your laughter reminds me what it is to
celebrate creation, to wonder at what God did, and enjoy it with all the
fiber in your being! And right now, you are not choosing well.
You are not choosing to enjoy and worship as you were. You are choosing
to be irritated at your younger sibling [who does not understand
politeness yet] as they reach over and take sand that you were about to
take. And you have let anger take hold of your heart and turned a lesson
for your sibling into an offense which you are trying to handle
yourself by striking out. You will remember this day much more than the
handful of sand. I long for you to choose well and let this cease to
have a hold on you! Rather than me helping your un-informed sibling
grow, I now have to deal with your harsh and hurtful actions.
So please, lets both enjoy the day and put this behind us! If you
cannot, I must remind you that willful choices of wrong-doing separate
us from the goodness of God. And you will be outside of the goodness of
the sandbox and the heap you were making. But if you stop now and heed
me, returning to mature choices and letting Papa's grace help your
sibling forget that you hurt them, we can all enjoy the day!"
I imagine that we can change Papa's mind because, in a certain sense,
He's playing a game with us. He made the rules, and when the sin in the
Garden gave the accuser license to exploit these rules, Papa sat back
and said to us, "Your move." Would we accept things as they are, because
He wrote the rules? And in our private heart of hearts we disdain Him
for the rules? Or would we appeal to the part of Him that we share, Love
from His heart, that is our secret with Him beyond the reach of
Accusation? If your spouse puts on a pouty face and says they won't do
something you know very well they will, you laugh and maybe poke them
and say "I know you better than that!" And while this deals with
people's fate and health and the destiny of kingdoms, maybe Papa's moves
are based on the laws of the universe until a priest who knows Love
whispers in His ear "I know You better than that..."
