神的异象
主,来吧!公平地行动
经文
申命记三十二1-12
1诸天哪,侧耳,我要说话;愿地也听我口中的言语。
2我的教训要淋漓如雨;我的言语要滴落如露,
如细雨降在嫩草上,如甘霖降在菜蔬中。
3我要宣告耶和华的名;你们要将大德归与我们的神。
4他是磐石,他的作为完全;
他所行的无不公平,是诚实无伪的神,又公义,又正直。
5这乖僻弯曲的世代向他行事邪僻;有这弊病就不是他的儿女。
6愚昧无知的民哪,你们这样报答耶和华吗?
他岂不是你的父、将你买来的吗?他是制造你、建立你的。
7你当追想上古之日,思念历代之年;
问你的父亲,他必指示你;问你的长者,他必告诉你。
8至高者将地业赐给列邦,将世人分开,就照以色列人的数目立定万民的疆界。
9耶和华的分本是他的百姓;他的产业本是雅各。
10耶和华遇见他在旷野荒凉野兽吼叫之地,就环绕他,
看顾他,保护他,如同保护眼中的瞳人。
11又如鹰搅动巢窝,在雏鹰以上两翅搧展,接取雏鹰,背在两翼之上。
12这样,耶和华独自引导他,并无外邦神与他同在。
信息分享
相信你现在已明白,为甚么根据神的公义来画下我们的「底线」是那么困难的一回事了。那是因为我们总是关心自己怎样被得罪,更多于我们怎样得罪了神。心理学家克莱布(Larry Crabb)说:「若是只聚焦于伤害,我们就会培养出索取的心灵。」从而便会对神说:「主啊,请您开始公平地行动吧,在我们敌人面前保护我。」不过,一旦放弃索取的态度,我们就必须无言的接受别人的任意对待,专心仰望神会按祂自己的方法去对付他们。我们真可以接受这种不加以反抗的态度吗?
我的意思不是说受到严重的身体伤害或性侵犯的人不应该报警,我所提到的是别人无情的语言或行动给我们的心灵所造成的伤害。要是我们专注于别人对我们所犯的罪,我们就很难能够不叛逆神,因为在考虑到我们怎样受伤的时候,我们会要求一种合理的调整。但是如果我们专心思考我们怎样伤害了神,以及怎样以自我中心,以及拒绝相信祂的能力和爱而继续伤害祂的时候,我们那叛逆的灵便会自行消除。这样,别人对我们所做的,与我们对神所做的相比起来,便显得微不足道了。我们的视角会因此得到纠正,我们更能够看到事情普遍性的合理,以永恒的公义来作为「底线」。
「我们必须相信神会按祂的方法对待别人」
进深研究
传三1-14;诗十八30;太五48
1. 传道书的作者知道甚么?
2. 耶稣在登山宝训中劝告门徒甚么?
祈祷
慈爱的天父,我们企图以违背您的方式生活,错误地对待自己,求您赦免。您的道路能带来和谐,我们所走的路会导致灭亡。您的道路能带来自由,我们所做的带来愚妄。求您帮助我们懂得毫无保留地行走在您的道路上。阿们。
The Vision of God
"Come on Lord, act justly"
Bible reading:
Deuteronomy 32:1-12
1 Listen, you heavens, and I will speak; hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.
2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.
3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
5 They are corrupt and not his children; to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.
6 Is this the way you repay the Lord, you foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator,[a] who made you and formed you?
7 Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.
8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples
according to the number of the sons of Israel.[b] 9 For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.
10 In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.
12 The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him
Message
Can you see now why it is so hard to draw the "bottom line" concerning God in terms of His justice? We feel much more passionate about how we have been sinned against than how we sin against Him. "To dwell only on the fact that we have been victimised," says psychologist Larry Crabb, "is to develop a demanding spirit." We tend then to say to God: "Come on Lord, start acting justly and defend me against my adversaries." Once we give up our demandingness, however, we are at the mercy of other people and have to go through life trusting God to deal with them on His terms. Can we handle that kind of vulnerability?
I am not suggesting, by the way, that people who experience serious physical or sexual abuse should not report it to the authorities. What I have in mind as I write is the kind of situation when someone wounds our spirit by an insensitive word or action. When we focus on the sins of others toward ourselves it becomes hard to give up our rebellion against God, because, in the light of how we are hurting, we see it as justified. But when we focus on how much we have hurt Him, and how we continue to hurt Him by our self-centredness and our refusal to trust His power and love, our rebellious spirit dissolves of its own accord. Then what others have done to us seems of much lesser significance than what we have done to Him. Our perspectives are corrected and we are more ready to recognise the universal rightness of things and make eternal justice the "bottom line".
"We must trust God to deal with people on His terms"
Prayer
Gracious Father, forgive us for the wrongs we inflict upon ourselves by trying to live in ways other than Your ways. Your ways produce rhythm; our ways produce ruin. Your ways produce freedom, our ways produce folly. Help us to take Your ways unreservedly. Amen.
Further study
Ecclesiastes 3:1-14
Psalm 18:30
Matt 5:48
1. What did the writer of Ecclesiastes know?
2. What did Jesus exhort in His sermon on the mount?
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