Title: Strengthen Your Heart with Grace
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<The 8th Sunday of Pentecost, July 7, 2002>
Nurturing Sermon / Video
harden your heart with grace
Numbers 14:1-10
Hebrews 13:8-9
A lot of people talk about our society's 'pot grit'. … There is no way to know whether that is our ethnicity or not, but one thing is clear: the media is said to be the main culprit in promoting the 'pot habit'. The media deplores that 'Handangism' is rampant in our society, but the worst is the media. … There is no cold reason in our media. It may be cold to take care of your teeth, but in reports and comments, it heats up easily like a 'pot' and then cools down easily. (p. 91)
People who have been influenced by such media are easily judged and criticized or praised at the same time. This is why modern people avoid heavy discourse, like light and short-lived humor, and hate to think deeply and discuss. The lightness of modern man's existence pointed out by Milan Kundera's novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" seems to be getting more and more accurate. Our lives are as light as a feather or chaff blown by the wind, and float around as the wind blows.
However, even Christians are not free from the lightness of the press. As Karl Barth said, you should have a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other hand to read the Bible, read the newspaper, read the newspaper and read the Bible. Currently, Christians hold a newspaper in one hand and a TV remote control in the other. While watching TV, watching TV and reading newspapers, they do not hesitate to comment on events and evaluate characters as if they were experts. No matter how professional an interpretation may be, failure to judge with respect to the Word of God and the eternal world to which it is directed will inevitably be biased toward one side, and will be merely an argument of one side. As a Christian, you don't value judgment by God's Word because you don't acknowledge that today's history is under God's sovereignty. After all, faith is only a word, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that such a person has no faith or hope for the eternal world.
The Israeli Congregation in the Wilderness Wasn't Careful
It seems that modern people are not the only ones who are as light as a feather. If you look at the history of the Hebrews in the Old Testament, you can see that they too were as light as smoke from a chimney.
The book of Numbers that we read today records what happened after twelve spies returned from a 40-day inspection of the Promised Land of Canaan and heard the report. All ten of the twelve, except for Joshua and Caleb, reported negatively.
“We cannot go up against that people. That people are stronger than we are.” Then they spread bad news about the land they had discovered. They told the children of Israel about the land:
“The land we went through to spy on it is a land that devours its inhabitants. Also, the people we saw in the land were tall like poles. There we also saw the Nephilim descendants. The descendants of Anak are a branch of the Nephilim. We looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, but we must have seen them in their eyes.”
As I read this part, I thought, 'Maybe, they resemble the media these days so well'. The way they exaggerate or agitate is too similar. The way the public opinion is driven by a numerical advantage is very similar to that of the clan press, which accounts for 70% of our newspaper market. Apparently Caleb calmed the people and said, “Let's go up. Let's go up and take over the land. We can definitely take over the land.” However, people did not listen to it, and the majority of the media turned public opinion toward returning to Egypt. After crying all night and blaming Moses, they came to a conclusion.
“Let’s set the head. And let's go back to Egypt."
I was swept away by the instigation of ten trustless and thoughtless spies, and I came to a very foolish conclusion. Returning to Egypt now means death, and even though it means that they will become slaves more severely than before.
Joshua and Caleb, who couldn't see it, came out in front of these congregations and persuaded them not to be afraid of the people of Canaan, but the congregations took stones and tried to kill them. In the face of misleading public opinion, the truth had no choice but to be turned away.
As they crossed the Red Sea, they were thrilled with the amazing experience that the mighty Egyptian army was commanded and they were saved. If they had listened to Joshua and Caleb's reports more calmly and carefully considered Moses' judgment and God's will, Israel's history in the wilderness would have been very different. Misreports and agitation forced the congregation of Israel to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. The punishment of the 40 years in the wilderness began for the light judgment of ten unbelieving and careless spies and the unbelieving congregation who thoughtlessly accepted their words.
The congregations of Israel were well aware of how God had delivered them out of Egypt. Through the ten plagues, they condemned the powerful Egyptian domination and power, crossed the Red Sea that stood in their way, and even signed a covenant to become God's holy people on Mount Sinai. The forgotten and erroneous congregation of Israel was as light as chaff in the wind.
After all, this is because they did not have God in them, and because they did not have hope and faith in his promises. In Israel's history, God's promises or his commandments have always failed to keep pace with reality. They considered God's promises and commandments to be separate from reality. They should have judged the problems of reality according to the words, but they accepted the reality as reality and tried to solve it according to their experience and judgment without asking God. The reason why the congregation of Israel had to be light was because the promises of God had not been established in them. Because of God's promise and grace, they had to leave, and now they were going to enter the promised land, but because of false agitation, they forgot the promise and God's grace that followed and made a realistic judgment.
Today's Prophet
Even today, the existence of modern people is light because there is no knowledge or belief in any center that runs through this history. Because we only see the events that occur at that time, and do not know the values that form the central axis of history, our judgments sometimes go to the right, sometimes to the left, sometimes to be white, and sometimes to be black. In particular, modern people who have become accustomed to material civilization throw away their spiritual and spiritual values, so they are intoxicated with the splendor of that civilization and act like Faust who sold their souls to Satan while immersed in its vulgarity. Perhaps the media is not aware of the mentality of these modern people. So they may be instigating while encouraging their lightness. Because that's how business works.
In times like these, someone will have to take on the roles of Joshua and Caleb. In the Old Testament era, there were prophets like this, who set the people of Israel who were wandering lightly and taught them not to lose their focus. At the center of it was the Word of God and the covenant we made with him.
In today's world of extremely advanced material civilization, who can be a prophet and who can remind us that God is at the center of this history? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth to show that he is the center of this history and that only through him can the kingdom of God be established. He reminded us that the center of this history is in the eternal world where God's rule is consummated. Therefore, modern civilization, which seeks to make this earth a paradise on earth through the development of material civilization, goes against God's work toward an eternal world. If we do not believe in and hope for God's promise of everlasting life, we fall into “the unbearable light.”
In today's text, Hebrews 13, it says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." He said, "It is beautiful to be strengthened by grace." To ‘strengthen your heart with grace’ means not to follow the civilization, knowledge, or ideology of this world, but to hold in your heart the kingdom of God proclaimed by grace by Jesus Christ, hold fast to it, and go toward that hope. When we rely on Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and hold on to the truth he showed us, our shaky lives will become stable and will not be shaken by the turbulent waves of change in this age. Jesus said that when we hear the word of the Lord and do it, it is like building a house on the rock. When I keep in my heart the word of the Lord, which aims for the eternal kingdom of God, my life will stand firm and unwavering in any storm on this earth.
Beloved, no matter how splendid the modern material civilization may appear, I hope you will properly realize that it is a chaff that will eventually be blown away by the wind and a shell civilization that will disappear like a mist. If we are swept away by that wave of civilization, we too will become light beings, scattered in the wind, and lose our center.
Now, please come to your senses and run towards your goal, looking at the world of eternal life that shines beyond material civilization. Please do not improvisely judge the various phenomena occurring in our society today and be lightly swept away by it, but meditate and pray deeply on the Word of God, and look more deeply and farther away. May your hearts be strengthened by the grace of Christ. May you daily renew yourself with God's grace so that you do not be lightly swept away by the winds of this age. Do not be overly excited by light public opinion, and follow the enlightenment and guidance of the Holy Spirit and do not miss the work of God.
I hope that your life will lead to the world of eternal life while following God's will and providence, which is the central axis of this history.