And they sought to
lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the
parable against them. So they left Him and went away. (Mark 12:12)
What do you do when you find the Word of
God pressing against you? This is an important question, because
as the Holy Spirit leads us through the ongoing process of
sanctification, many times the Word will instruct us and the Holy Spirit
convict us. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness... (1 Tim 3:16) If humility and submission to the authority of the Word
reign in your heart, you'll submit, repent, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide
a course correction in your life. But humility's nemesis, pride,
often has a different plan, suggesting that we simply ignore or erase our error instead of correcting it.
When Jesus walked the earth in flesh, the rulers of God's Temple in Jerusalem had
allowed spiritual elitism to infect their minds. They liked being the ones who had all the answers, and when Jesus arrived with better answers, and the Word (in the flesh) pressed against them, they let pride driven envy infect their thoughts and block a corrective teaching about their leadership. Members of the Sanhedrin felt they had paid their dues through service to attain the positions they held in the Temple hierarchy. Still others, the priests of God, had inherited their jobs by right of birth as descendants of Aaron, and they felt prideful entitlement. Both groups had enjoyed a long season where their authority was never questioned, so instead of looking to the final Arbiter for answers, they had become their own arbiters. They had barked human inspired orders and the multitudes had obeyed them. Now, a Servant Lord had arrived with Truth on His tongue and it infuriated them. The Psalmist wrote -- When with rebukes You
correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; Surely
every man is vapor.... John Wesley expressed their situation
like this -- How wonderful is the providence of
God, using all things for the good of His children! Generally the multitude is
restrained from tearing them in pieces only by the fear of their rulers. And
here the rulers themselves are restrained, through fear of the
multitude! What do you do when you find the Word of God leaned against you? What do you do when you realize you are wrong, sideways with the Lord, caught in sin? We've all had the experience of abrupt conviction by the simple hearing of God's word. Those moments test our claims of submission. I'd be less than truthful if I didn't admit to you that I have myself applied the Pharisaic solution, and plotted against the word. I've experienced conviction and instead of submitting to it's instruction, searched the scriptures for a loophole that would excuse me. I've even resorted to reconsidering contradictory doctrinal positions that I thought might excuse me where God had accused me. I've worn a scriptural hearing aid that would allow some thoughts in but protect me from the menacing truth of my sin. I've wasted a lot of time and effort and taken many winding paths only to find myself standing back at the foot of the Word, with my heart fully convicted. Prideful resistance of God was a forty seven year habit for me before He, by Grace through faith, saved me. That's when I first experienced the blessing of Divine correction. Still, well rooted old habits and favored sins like to try to push up new shoots every now and then.
The writer of Hebrews reminds us -- Now no chastening
seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it
yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by
it. (Hebrews 12:11) If we I want
to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness, we have to yield to the
Vine-dresser's pruning Spirit.
Where in your life is the word of God leaned against
you? Where are you pushing back instead of submitting? Where are you listening
to everything or anything on your spiritual iPod except what Holy Spirit and the Word of God are instructing?
For
whom the LORD loves He chastens...
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