HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-08-18, Page 12PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2016.
From the Minister's Study
Trust in the Lord to make your path straight
By Pastor Gary van Leeuwen
Blyth Christian Reformed
Church
It is my privilege this summer to
conduct five weddings. As part of
preparing for their wedding, I ask
couples to choose a biblical text that
will become the theme of their
marriage. One of the couples chose
Proverbs 3:3-6. Quoted from the
MW, this text says, "Let love and
faithfulness never leave you; bind
them around your neck, write them
on the tablet of your heart. Then you
will win favour and a good name in
the sight of God and man. Trust in
the LORD with all your heart and
lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to Him, and
He will make your paths straight."
Because I normally prepare a short
reflection on the verse the couple
chooses, I have been thinking about
this particular Scripture passage for
some time. I would like to share a
few of those reflections.
Beginning at the end of these
verses, we hear the words, "He will
make your paths straight." Here in
Huron County there are very few
roads which have curves in them, let
alone the twists that the roads in
ancient Israel had. Much of Israel is
hilly and rough. They say that in
Jerusalem you cannot take one step
without going either uphill or down.
Travelling today is facilitated by
excellent paved roads, but, of course,
it was not always that way. For
millennia travel was by foot (either
your own or that of a donkey or
horse), and it was dangerous.
Through dried up wadis, up the side
of steep hills and over rugged
wastelands, travel was difficult.
Added to the physical challenges
was the presence of bandits and
outlaws who were ready and willing
to relieve a traveller of his burdens,
violently if the traveller happened to
protest.
Because of the constant dangers
while travelling, it was not
uncommon to hear the blessing/wish
uttered by the traveller's loved
ones: May your paths be straight.
What this meant was, "May you
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travel safely and arrive at your
destination."
As I reflected on this text in the
context of marriage, it occurred to
me that many people do not
experience straight paths in their
marriage. Sadly, many marriages
encounter obstacles and dangers on
the way, and couples seem unwilling
or unable to work through the
difficulties. So very often couples do
not fulfill their vow, "till death do us
part," and thus it cannot be said that
they arrived safely. They did not
make it to their intended destination.
With all the advances that we have
made over the past couple of
centuries, we have done much to
solve many of the problems in this
world. Medical technology has
enabled us to live longer than our
ancestors. Engineering marvels have
given us the ability to communicate
across vast distances as if we were in
adjoining rooms. Plant genetics and
field management have increased
crop yields almost exponentially.
Many of our advances have occurred
in the last few decades. It seems as
if we are the cusp of solving many,
or at least most, of our problems. Of
course, this is not without significant
cost, at times, to the environment,
but we can work on that problem as
well.
What is ironic, however, is that in
our human relationships we haven't
seemed to be able to do any better
than in the past. We might say that
we are doing far worse, particularly
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if we count broken marriages,
racism, wars, gang violence and the
like. All the ingenuity at the disposal
of the human race doesn't seem to
help. In fact, our technology might
serve to drive a wedge in
relationships as people rely on brief
text messages to communicate rather
than desiring meaningful
conversation.
If we turn to scripture, we read
these words (as I paraphrase them
from Proverbs 3:5-6): Trust that
God's way is best and don't try to
think that you can do better yourself.
If you do that, you will arrive at your
intended goal. These words were
originally penned by Solomon, one
of the wisest men of ancient times.
He had accomplished much: he had
built one of the most beautiful
buildings in the world (the temple in
Jerusalem), and he had made
alliances with many, many nations,
bringing his own people a time of
prolonged peace and prosperity.
People flocked to hear him talk
about his accomplishments just as
many today flock to listen to
celebrities tell them how they
succeeded. It is upon great
reflection, in light of his
accomplishments, that Solomon tells
people that if you want to truly
arrive, you have to trust fully and
completely that God's way is best.
We could spend a great deal of
time talking about what God's way
is, but verses 3 and 4 of the text give
us two words: love and faithfulness.
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In Hebrew these are actually quite
complex words. We could also
translate them as "loyalty and
reliability," or "kindness and
permanence," or "graciousness and
truthfulness."
These words are best illustrated by
God who is loyal, kind, gracious and
faithful toward us, even when we do
not treat Him all that well. If we read
through some sections of the Bible
(see Isaiah's prophecy, for example),
we see people ignoring God while at
the same time abusing each other. In
spite of that, God continued to be
committed to His people and the
people of the world, and He sent His
own Son, Jesus, to us, knowing full
well that people would most likely
turn against Him as well. And we
did. Well, maybe not us, exactly, but
had we been there, we might have
been among those lining the streets
calling for His crucifixion.
We can never say that we wouldn't
have been among them. Yet, God
was loving and faithful toward us,
giving us an opportunity to be
forgiven and, as a result to be called
His children.
And He calls us to be loving and
faithful toward each other. I think
that we understand how this works
in marriage. Even when couples are
having a bit of a downturn in their
relationship, if they commit
themselves to be loving and faithful,
they will pull through. If they are
loyal and kind and gracious to each
other always, then there is a very
high probability that they will arrive,
that their marriage will survive until
"death does them part."
It is the same way in all
relationships. We are constantly
reminded of the brokenness of
relationships as we see riots and
killing and anger in the streets of
many cities in the United States.
Calls for gun control will not solve
the problem, but if people began to
make every effort to be gracious and
kind and loyal and faithful to their
Continued on page 18
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