Ambiguous
of doubtful or uncertain nature; difficult to comprehend, distinguish, or classify.

A continuation of the whisper post.

Is it not true that Christianity is a navigation of faith through completely uncertain waters? We can speak certainly about very few things. The fact that God wins, Jesus is Lord, and the devil loses is fairly concrete, but the finer points are blurry.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12 that we now “see in a mirror dimly”. Some versions include “see now through a mirror obscurely”, or “see a blurred image in a mirror”. When I was picturing the concept I didn’t think of glass or a mirror at all. I’ve very little experience with blurry or dim mirrors. What I pictured was my younger days trying to catch blue crabs off of different docks in Maryland. The waters of the Chesapeake are not as clear as they used to be, or so I hear. I’ve never known them in my lifetime to be clear. In fact when I’m pulling up my line or scooping along the bank I have to strain and often guess at what is there. Sometimes I get a rock, sometimes nothing at all. It was REALLY hard to see.

That was the scenario I imagine when I read the Pauline passage. Dark, almost completely opaque water. It is possible to discern things, sometimes if I could get the bait just a few inches from the surface I could be nearly certain that my dinner was hanging on from behind. It would even bring a bit of excitement when he seemed especially large. I would think “look at that monster!” Sometimes I was right, but not always. A swift scoop and sometimes the dinky thing would slip right through the net. In my many years and many hours of crabbing I never did quite KNOW what was hanging on the line. In fact a little swarm of minnows could sometimes feel, and look, just like a crab through that murky water.

The Christian life is a bit like that. As I mentioned in the previous post, God is a gentle whisper. God “IS” … always has been, always will be. He doesn’t need to make noise, He doesn’t have to put on a show. Shows & noise are for counterfeit gods, they are for the mistresses of the adulterous people (Matt 16:14) seeking a sign. Sometimes, they are for human beings that God has stamped with His approval. Ah, but that was the last post. Lets move on…

If God were to yell & scream His will He would make us all slaves just by the sound of His voice. That is NOT His plan. He takes no joy in slavery. He takes joy in willful, chosen, obedience. (Isa. 1:18-20)

“you pray to prosper and succeed but your flesh is something I just can’t feed…”. Those are some words of a very powerful song by Keith Green called “To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice”. The words are tremendous and if they were not presented in such a catchy song they would likely have gotten Keith beaten up and thrown out of any room he shared them in. I dare you to digest the lyrics: lyrics.

I can only hope at this point that you’re convinced of what I have said so far. Here is where I explain that Ambiguity is a necessary part of the Christian’s walk. Absolutely NECESSARY!

As I just mentioned. The sound of God’s voice would make any human His slave. Pharaoh, when he came against Moses, became God’s slave very quickly. So much so that during the latter plagues the bible reads “and God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” Pharaoh actually believed himself to be a deity. Yet flesh is so weak that the 10 plagues would have likely stopped at #6 if God had not done something a bit unusual. In Exodus Chapter 9, after the Plague of Boils verse 12 says “But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”

So what does that mean for us? It means that God MUST be a whisper. In 1 Kings 19 that mighty man of God, Elijah, who saw chariots of fire and watched his water soaked offering licked up by fire from heaven experienced God… as a gentle whisper.

God’s ultimate joy comes when we fragile little wisps of mist hear his gentle whisper and obey. If He spoke much more loudly we would be utterly destroyed. As Isaiah puts it in 6:5 ” “Woe to me! I am ruined”.

So this week lets approach the throne in awe of the gentle whisper. Listen for it carefully, and obey. Turn down the volume, retreat from anything that would loudly cry out for your attention, and seek the whisper that is the Ancient of Days! Not the wind, not the earthquake, not even the fire… Lord whisper in my ear!