How Do You Measure Up?

Date: 26/1/97
Speaker: David Meiklejohn
Text: Amos 7v7-9

In the text, God showed Amos a plumb line, indicating he was measuring Israel. The plumb line is a standard, used as a comparison to see how a wall matches the standard. The question I would like to pose is how do you measure up? What are your standards that you measure yourself against?

Bad Comparisons

There are certain people in the Bible we look at and dismiss their action as foolish, something we would never do. Often though, if we look closely at ourselves, we make the same mistakes and worse. Like the people of Israel we like to look around at others and see their mistakes. We like to see them get their come-upance for their sins. Israel was like this when Amos started to prophecy to them. In the early chapters, Amos brings the Lord's word on the surrounding nations, each time starting the same way - "For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof". They had sinned enough that he was not to be persuaded against punishing them. The Israelites must have liked hearing how ungodly their neighbours were.

Best of all in their view, was when Amos came to Judah, the southern kingdom which was split from the rest of Israel. This was Amos's home land, yet he gave the Lord's judgement on it just as with the other nations.

It must have hurt them then when he carried on to judge Israel. Not only did the Lord have words to say about Israel's sin, but they were worse than all the others. This must have made Amos very unpopular, but he still obeyed God in bringing his Word to Israel.

We often are like Israel. We look at others and wonder how they could have failed. We would never have done that. Let's look at a few examples:

• Lot's wife was told not to look back, when they ran from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. She did and she was turned into a pillar of salt. Why did she turn back? Surely that was a simple instruction to obey. Yet look at our own lives. We have left behind the old man, we should be living in the Spirit. How many times do we look back at the old life with longing. Lot's wife just looked but how many times do we not just look back but wander off the track, in search of the world's pleasures? Lot's wife is a warning to us: let us not belittle that warning.
• Peter told Jesus he would never deny him. Surely if that was you or I we would have kept our word and not denied Jesus. How could he do such a thing? Yet how many times in our own lives have we failed to stand up for Christ, to stand out from the crowd? How many times have we distanced ourselves from other Christians and looked on them as fanatics?
• Moses met God in a burning bush. God spoke to him and asked him to take a message to Pharaoh. But Moses made up all sorts of excuses. Why didn't he just do what he was told? Why didn't he just believe that God would uphold him? Surely we would have agreed and gone for God. Yet how many times have we pulled back from doing what we know we should, saying we are unable to do it. We don't have the talents, we don't have the strength. Maybe we're not as good as we thought.

Wrong Measurements

So we're not as good as we might think. We all have our problems. But how do we really measure up in God's eyes? What attributes do we need to concentrate on?

Who do you admire? Athletes for their strength and speed, for making themselves into almost perfect physical forms? Great thinkers, who have IQs well beyond yours and mine, who understand how the world works so much better than us? People with position, like the Royal family, who their whole lives have been trained to behave as superiors? Again, let's look at some biblical examples:

• Samson was strong, possibly the strongest man ever; surely a good character to look up to. Yet he used his strength for the wrong reasons, in vengeance. He had a weakness for women, and he broke all of his Nazirite vows. Samson's strength came from God and he abused it.
• Solomon was the wisest man ever. He was a great thinker and for a while was a great king for Israel. In his later life though, he turned away from God, he was disenchanted with life and had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Despite the wisdom and the riches God had given him, he is not an example to follow.
• Eli was a great hight priest. He was the one man in Israel who, once a year, went in to the holy of holies and was in the presence of God. He had all the advantages of position and was responsible for the spiritual welfare of the whole country. Yet Eli couldn't look after his own family. His sons were committing terrible crimes against God, but he let them go with an admonishment which they didn't listen to. God had given Eli position, but that doesn't make him a good character to follow.

God's Criteria

• Obedience - Hebrews 11v8 says "By faith Abraham...obeyed". Because of his obedience, the chosen people came about and claimed the land of Canaan as their inheritance. He obeyed when God asked him to leave his home country. He obeyed when God asked him to sacrifice his promised son. He did what God said and that is what God asks of us. He doesn't ask us to be able to kill a hundred men, to overrun armies. He just asks us to do what he says.
• Humility - in Numbers 12, Aaron and Miriam rebelled against Moses. They wanted to know why he should lead alone. The chapter comments that Moses was a man of humility. He didn't answer them back, though he had every right to. He let God do the talking, and God was fierce in his defence of Moses. We need to forget about our "rights". We have no need to defend ourselves - just leave it up to God. After all, he can defend us much better than we can.
• Perseverence - in 1 Kings 18, Elijah is on Mount Carmel. The priests of Baal fail to persuade their God to consume the sacrifice they have for him. After one prayer from Elijah, God sent fire down to consume not just the sacrifice, but the altar it sat on. After this, Elijah went up to pray for the return of the rain. You would think he would expect instant action from God after what had just happened, but when his servant came back to say there were still no clouds, he wasn't discouraged, but went back to prayer. Seven times he prayed and sent his servant to check for clouds. On the seventh time, the servant spotted a small cloud, and that was enough for Elijah. What patience he showed, what perseverence. Sometimes we pray and look for an instant answer. Don;t dismay if it doesn't happen. God is pleased when we show perseverence and wants to encourage it in us. So keep going to God, keep praying for what you know is in his will. He will reward you.

Jesus portrayed all three of these attributes, and he of course is our supreme example. Hebrews 5v8 tells us he learned obedience through his suffering. Isn't it interesting that Jesus had to learn obedience, it wasn't a God-given gift built in to him. Philippians 2v6-8 tells us how he humbled himself. He brought himself low, and put others before himself. Hebrews 12v2 says he endured the cross. At any time he could have called down angels to free him, but he stayed, he hung there and died for us.

So let us endeavour to be obedient, humble and to persevere. These are qualities that we can change in ourselves and aren't so affected by circumstances. In fact hardship often gives us a chance to practise them all the more.

© David Meiklejohn 1997
David@Meiklejohn.org.uk
www.meiklejohn.org.uk

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