Chalice of Obedience

Chalice of Obedience

"And [even] to [your] old age I [am] he; and [even] to hoar hairs will I carry [you]: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver [you]..... Remember the former things of old: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else; [I am] God, and [there is] none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [the things] that are not [yet] done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure...... I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory" (Isaiah 46:4-13).

There is just a chance that God does not know how to count, even read...so specific was he, laws, convents, vows, promises, prophecies. We have a calendar and a clock to keep up with time and space. There is little evidence that God wears a watch, yet always exactly on time...always at the crossroads of your life before you get there.

Today's world anti-Christ, fairness, popularity, political correctness, can anyone think of anything more foolish-bizarre-uncouth than ancient Hebrew people, priests standing over a four foot square table killing animals (bleeding them, gutting them, checking for any flaw or blemish, internally or externally) and then burning by fire the animal, smoke, making a sweet savor, sacrifice to God...for sin? OR, just as the feast, sacrifices, ties of the Old Testament, New Testament Christians, giving 1/10 of everything to God. (The tithe is the Lord's whether you give it or not, 1/7 of your time, the Lord's whether you give it or not). How can we rationalize-justify such behavior? Only the real Christian, born again, spirit filled, child of God, understands the chalice of obedience. The laws of God, given to Moses, are incomprehensible to modern man. Just think, millions of Jews, laws of God, feast of atonement, first fruits, trespass, feast of unleavened bread (seven). Animals, oxen, sheep, rams, bullocks, goats, sometimes hundreds a week, without blemish, sacrifice to God. (If an animal had a flaw, internally or externally, the second most perfect in the flock must be presented.) The Jews knew obedience to God, the power of God. They had witnessed the flies and frogs, the Passover death angel, the dry land through the red sea-drowning of the 600 chariots and horses of Pharaoh's army, the shaking of Mt. Sinai, they knew that they had nothing to do with their deliverance-salvation, that it was all a work of God. Strange that they observe God's laws in the wilderness but lapsed into forgetfulness in the promise land.

We are told that the Levite priest retired at age 50. "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, This [is it] that [belongeth] unto the Levites: from twenty and five years old and upward they shall go in to wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. And from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting upon the service [thereof], and shall serve no more: But shall minister with their brethren in the tabernacle of the congregation, to keep the charge, and shall do no service. Thus shalt thou do unto the Levites touching their charge" (Numbers 8:23-26). The Levite priest must have been tired of the sacrifice of animals, many must have been very good at the process by this time in their life...the chalice of obedience, experience, duty fulfilled.

This writer has traveled the world, finds that only in America are old people disregarded. The young doctor, lawyer, preacher, etc. THINKS he knows so much more than his older counterpart. I want a surgeon who can barely hold a knife. I would rather have his experience than the knowledge gained from the computer of his younger fellow practitioner.

Once, in a large medical group, old doctor Frank Day said, "When I run into a problem with a patient, I pray." I heard some young, smart, Jewish doctors around me snicker.

I had an old uncle, brother of my grandfather, who had been handed down knowledge which enabled him to go into the woodlands, find certain roots-berries-herbs, plants which over the centuries had great healing ability. With these herbs, etc., he could make teas and poultices excelling the "poisons" found in drug stores. I was the only descendant interested in such. Don't you know that I wish I had been more attentive? That knowledge is gone forever.

An old preacher would come to my house before he died, pastor for 75 years and talk of Charles H. Spurgeon's annual rededication service. He said, "If committed Christian's-church members would go to those who at one time were members of the church (they at one time had a desire and any faith is better than no faith), and encourage them back to the church, we would have a different world." This is the power of age compared to present day, modern denomination, Madison Avenue techniques....pizza and pool parties, attraction by drums and drama.

We hear that constant refrain, "different world." God did his work in six days, rested on the seventh. Saturday was and still is the Sabbath but God changed our day of worship-rest to Sunday, the Lord's day. In my youth, Sunday, a day of rest-worship. Even the mules, work animals, went to the pasture on Sunday. My mother did all her cooking on Saturday, preparing for our Lord's day, worship, fellowship around the lunch table with relatives. Today, Sunday is the most profitable day for business. Parking lots at shopping centers are filled.

When will our spiritual ears hear the joy of obedience? "Behold, to obey [is] better than sacrifice, [and] to hearken than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22). Recently, a pastor, before an annual "homecoming," luncheon, celebration, said to the large crowd assembled in the church dining room, "Without you Lord, I am nothing." The minister of music took up the prayer, "Without you Lord, I am nothing." From the back of the room the church janitor said, "Without you Lord, I am nothing." The preacher whispered to the music director, "Did you hear the janitor say that he was nothing without the Lord?" It is time for all Christian's, old, young, educated, uneducated, to drink from the chalice of obedience.