I’ve always believed that God is a God of order. It’s something we need, it’s something we crave. It’s the antithesis of what the world offers. In the beginning the world was formless…void. No order. God created with order. Seven days, day, night, one thing, then another, building upon each thing to extend order over chaos. His voice commanded order. His hand reached into the darkness and formed. Life came with order, while death is the product of disorder.
In a sermon recently I was reminded of the story of Uzzah.
“But when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen nearly upset it.” 2 Samuel 6:6
He was struck down for doing this. Not slapped on the hand, not distracted by an angel in the form of a rabbit to get him away from the ark, not shocked by a holy volt of electricity, not held back by a super-natural force field, but struck down dead. Because he wanted to balance the presence of God, bring order to the One who created order, he mistook evil for good and it cost him.
How often do I do this? I remember my thoughts straying into this territory. I remember looking at my niece in her wheelchair and thinking of what I would do if I could. Trespassing into the pathway of God’s thoughts and plans, I knew I would do things differently and in grace I was cautioned.
“You think you love her more than I do.” The Holy Spirit admonished me, and I retreated.
God’s intentions do not need my input. His plans do not need my ideas. His Word doesn’t need my correction and His presence never needs steadying.
The Word of God lays out order for living. How to handle money, how to structure organizations, how to be a leader, how to be a husband, how to be a wife, how to be a parent and a how to be a friend are all in there.
How to love.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was He didn’t chuckle sweetly and say…”Oh simple one, they are all equally important, just like each of you are equally important.” He gave an answer because there is significance to how we acknowledge our responsibility to serve and love God and man. There is an order.
We love God first. That’s not a hint. It’s not an option. Order, life and joy come when we get that right.
His Word is our guideline for order. When I take the reins from my husband and decide that my wisdom outweighs submission to him, I am steadying the ark and dealing a deathblow to the life in my marriage.
When I fail to honor my body as the temple of the Lord, I am inviting disorder into my house, placing the desires of my mouth above the will of God and I give Him no way to protect me from the results of disordered eating.
When I fail to have discipline in my home, when I fail to serve my friend, when I put any of my notions above the Word of God, I am steadying the ark, reaching out to balance God’s ways in relation to my knowledge, and order is lost.
It is exactly what the serpent convinced Eve to do in the garden: question God’s motives, look at the rules differently, interpret instructions based on new and up to date information. God was not amused, and life was lost.
“Every disorder in our lives is out of order,” my Pastor said. Dysfunction, disease, disturbance, injury, brokenness, misalignment, these are not from God and He longs to set them straight.
His order is our healing. It’s our answer, our freedom and our grace to know His way.
Do not hear me saying that being perfectly obedient will keep sickness out of our lives. Sickness is here. It is part of life on earth. It is part of the disorder rekindled by Satan because of sin. Just as perfectly good seed is poisoned by polluted soil it grows in, so perfectly good souls are marred by the pollution of sin in the a fallen world we dwell in. God’s desire though, is to correct it. His heart is to quell chaos and place our feet on firm ground. We must find His answer to mayhem.
He wants to put order into our lives and it starts with our desire for HIM. Conviction is never to put us down, it is to pick us up. He wants us to see His order, not to keep us in line, but to keep us safe, secure and sane.
Loving Him, His Word, His peace. It puts us in a broad place, a place of freedom to experience His presence.
Untouched.
We no longer reach, as Uzzah did, to fix our circumstances, we reach to worship the Redeemer of our circumstances. He alone knows true order, we must know Him.
My niece is in a wheelchair, my friend struggles in her marriage, an acquaintance questions what to do next after losing her job, I miss my mother. We are none of us immune to disorder, but adjusting where God sits in that process will never bring healing. Only trusting Him to be the God He has always been.
He came to make His blessings known…as far as the curse is found…
The carols remind us of the answer to all disorder, a baby King, Lord at His birth, the paradoxical gift.
Forever our Savior, He came to represent humility and sacrifice in a world bent on selfishness.
True balance is realizing our best efforts can never outweigh His blood.
His life needs no steadying…
…He has already fallen for us.
Such love.
Such grace is ours, realizing how well we are steadied, unmoved and unshaken. Sealed in His hands we are partakers of abundant life, real and eternal life, made whole in the obstinate order of unconditional love.