Peter Misselbrook's Blog
Apr 6 2020 - 1 Corinthians 6:1-20 – When rights can be wrong

There is something about the way we are made that causes us to react against injustice – it’s part of being made in the image of God. Such a reaction can drive us to campaign against injustice and corruption; to seek to create a better world and to bring freedom to those who are oppressed. But it can also become self-centred. We can become preoccupied with the real or imagined hurts others have done to us and determined to get justice for ourselves, or even revenge.

In the church at Corinth there appears to have been a dispute between two Christians. The one who believed that they had been wronged had taken the other to court. Paul says that such conduct brings the gospel into disrepute. “Why not rather be wronged?” he writes, “Why not rather be cheated?” (1 Corinthians 6:7b). “You must be joking!” is our natural reaction. If I’ve been wronged or cheated I want to get it sorted out.

But think about it for a moment. “Why not rather be wronged?” Is it really so very important that we make sure we get what we deserve? Do we really want to take that attitude with God? Surely we glory in the fact that “he does not treat us as our sins deserve.” He has dealt with us in grace and in mercy and calls on us to treat others with the same generosity and grace.

Remember the parable that Jesus told of the two debtors? A servant of a certain king owed his master an unimaginable sum that he could not begin to repay – millions of pounds. The servant begged to be given more time to repay the debt, but his master had pity on him and freed him from it completely. That servant then went out and found a fellow servant who owed him about a third of a year’s wages – a significant sum, but nothing in comparison with what he had owed his king. He demanded immediate repayment from his fellow servant or he would have him thrown into prison. The story is shocking. We immediately see the injustice of the servant’s behaviour. But we have far more difficulty in applying it to ourselves. We have a tendency to go on demanding justice from others.

It is certainly good when wrongs can be righted and when a debt owed to us can be repaid. If we have a dispute with a Christian brother or sister it’s good if this can be resolved amicably with the help of other Christians. But if it cannot be resolved in such a fashion it’s better to suffer loss; better to be cheated of what you consider your rights than bring the gospel into disrepute – to deny the gospel of grace by insisting on your own rights.

And think for a moment which is the better: a world in which each individual is preoccupied with themselves and determined to get what they consider is due to them; or a world in which each is concerned to watch out for the needs of others, to protect them from exploitation and to ensure that they are provided for? In the first scenario there is only one person looking after me; in the second, there are many.

Paul reminds the Christians at Corinth that the day will come when they will judge the world – even judge angels. So let’s do what we can now to bring justice and blessing to others rather than being preoccupied with our own rights. To follow Jesus is to live for others and not for ourselves.

Heavenly Father, I am so glad that you have not treated me as my sins deserved but have loved me and given your Son for me when I was a rebel against you. Help me by your Spirit to follow Christ and to give myself to the care of others today.

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Apr 6 2019 - Judges 4:1-5:3 – Deborah, Barak and Jael

The Israelites had turned from the worship of the God of Abraham and had adopted gods of the Canaanites among whom they lived. Far from this securing their acceptance, they found that without the Lord they were suppressed by the Canaanites who probably feared the presence of these foreigners in their land as Pharaoh had feared their ancestors in Egypt. Like the Egyptians, the Canaanites had a well organised army with chariots and horses. The army of king Jabin included nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and was under the command of Sisera.

After twenty years of oppression, the Israelites cried out to the Lord for his help and he raised up a judge to lead them. The judge was a prophet called Deborah – Israel was to be led by a woman, chosen and equipped by God. At God's command, Deborah called upon Barak, a leader from the tribe of Naphtali, to gather together an army of ten thousand men from the northern tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun and to go out to fight against Sisera. Barak is given a promise from the Lord that Sisera, his army and his chariots will be delivered into the hands of Israel.

But Barak won't go unless Deborah goes with him; it's as if the word and promise of God are not enough for him; Deborah wants him to put himself in harm's way so, he would seem to argue, Deborah must go with him and share his fate. Deborah is ready to go with him but declares that because of his request, the honour of defeating Sisera will not be his; the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.

And that's what happens. Sisera went out to meet the army of Barak and was defeated. As his men were being put to the sword, Sisera jumped from his chariot and fled on foot from the battlefield. He took refuge in the tent of Heber the Kenite since Heber was a friend of Jabin, the Canaanite king of Hazor whom Sisera served. Heber was evidently not at home, but Sisera was welcomed into the tent by his wife Jael who gave the exhausted man milk to drink and a blanket under which to rest. Soon he was asleep, at which point Jael took a tent peg and a stone for a mallet and drove the peg through Sisera's temple and into the ground below. Sisera was dead, killed at the hands of a woman.

In Israelite society, women were not expected to take a lead, but God raised up Deborah to lead Israel and uses a foreign woman to destroy the commander of the Canaanite army. Ironically, it is only Barak who gets a mention among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11:32, even though his faith appears rather wobbly in this account of him in Judges. But the clear lesson here is that God does things in his own way – in unexpected ways – to demonstrate his own power.

Do we have clear and fixed views about the way in which God has to work to establish his kingdom? Do we have fixed ideas about leadership among the people of God? God may confound our small opinions by working in ways we do not expect and by raising up leaders whom we would not have chosen. God is not limited by our small expectations, nor will he confine himself to channels of our choosing. He acts as he pleases and always to bring glory to his own name. So are we ready to recognise those through whom God chooses to work and display his own grace and power in our own day – whoever they may be?

Sovereign God, shatter my rigid expectations. May your Spirit open my eyes to discern those in whom and through whom you choose to work for the establishment of your kingdom. Help me gladly to play my own subordinate part in your work, remembering always that "yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever."

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Peter Misselbrook