"‘The people don’t know how to do what is right,’ says the Lord. ‘Their strong buildings are filled with treasures they took by force from others.’ So this is what the Lord God says: ‘An enemy will take over the land and pull down your strongholds; he will take the treasures out of your strong buildings.’" (NCV)
"Their strong buildings are filled with treasures they took by force from others."
The King James translates this phrase as "who store up violence and robbery." The Hebrew word for "who store" also means "to treasure" (Strong’s H686). The Lord Jesus taught about treasure:
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV).
Basically, we do what’s important to us. If we want something, we will make a way to get it, even if means taking out a loan, using a credit card, or even stealing it. Yes, even stealing it.
Have you seen the recent YouTube video about the two women on the beach who were packing up a whole host of things that didn’t belong to them? (I won’t post a reference here because my hopes are that these women will change their hearts.) When they were confronted, they continued to deny that the canopy, the chairs, and the toys weren’t theirs. One woman even asked the owner, "Is this toy yours?" as if she hoped he’d say no. You know what happened? They saw some "stuff" that looked interesting to them and they justified the theft with the concept of "Finders keepers, losers weepers." And after they had "found" the items, I think they truly had convinced themselves that these things were theirs. "I found it. It’s mine now." These women were doing what was important to them, accumulating stuff.
We do what’s important to us.
I’m convinced that the Lord Jesus was talking about more than just stuff. I believe He was talking about anything that we value: time, relationships, ideas, activities. Why do I believe this? Because the treasure we will have in heaven is far more than stuff. What we will have in heaven will be however much of a relationship we have developed with the Lord here on earth. Nothing that He might give us there will have meaning compared to seeing Him face to face.
What if that treasures that we are promised in heaven reduce down to one thing: the depth of our relationship with Him? What if that is the treasure? What if our eternal experience is based on how much we want Jesus?
Amos wrote:
"The people don’t know how to do what is right" (v. 10).
If you look at the Hebrew, that sentence is divided into three sections:
They know / not to do / right.
The emphasis is not that they lack knowledge, but that they are aware or understand to the point that they could teach someone else how to not do right. They have practiced not doing the right thing. (That is very different than not having the knowledge of how to do the right thing.) We have to ask ourselves if that is true about us as a Church and as individuals. Are there things we have practiced that aren’t right? Are we experienced, adept, even expert at doing things that aren’t right?
The result of this "practice" was that the Israelites had taken "treasure" from others in order to enrich or reward themselves. How might this look in our culture? (This could get very uncomfortable.)
Our culture talks about taking time for ourselves. Do we steal from others relationship time that they need from us in order to have "my" time? Do we use resources that could be used for others in order to satisfy our own lusts and desires? Here’s the truth: Living a life of ministry to others means that we are going to do "without" in our own lives. There won’t be sufficient resources to satisfy their needs and our desires. (Even the rich find there is never enough money, never enough time, never enough energy.) But when that need arises, do we have to ask ourselves if we have "enough" to meet the need, or do we simply go and meet the need, trusting the Lord to take care of us?
Where are our treasures?
I know many families who refuse to homeschool, not because both parents are working, but because the one stay-at-home parent feels that their "needs" (exercise, go to the gym, have time with friends, etc.) are more important. Oh, I’ve heard the excuses: "I don’t know enough to teach." "My kids and I wouldn’t get along." But I can tell you unequivocally that every child of every Christian family needs to be out of public school in America. And if a family can’t, for some reason, homeschool then others in that church need to rise up and either offer to homeschool or the church needs to establish (or co-op with other churches) a Christian school with no tuition. We are stealing from our children their spiritual inheritance by filling their minds and hearts with secular nonsense. And we are losing the next generation to evil.
Where else do we take from others to give to ourselves? In many places. How much television do we watch? I know many families where there are televisions in just about every room, with family members totally separated, watching "their own" shows. Sell the TV’s. Turn them off. You are stealing from your children in order to "treasure" those shows. (I don’t care what you’re watching. It’s not more important than interacting with the people around you.)
Where are our treasures?
There are so many things in America that we treasure aside from God. And in each and every case, we need to brutally ask ourselves if we are stealing from someone in order to have that treasure.
"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Does Jesus have our hearts? If so, then our treasure is His presence and His Word . . . and nothing else. Can we say that? Can we truly say that Jesus is our only treasure? The Israelites had practiced storing up treasures that didn’t matter and treasures that God hated! We need to start practicing storing up treasures that matter—storing up our relationship with our precious Lord Jesus Christ.
© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.
For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment