Sincerity

Sincerity

2/1/17

The definition of this word can become as categorical as any other word in a language bank.  When it is taken in truth it becomes a sign of what lies inside our hearts and thus can produce a simple explanation when looking at the overall heart of a nation.  God wants nothing less than a sincere heart when it comes to having a relationship with Him for an honest and pure pattern is what He gives in His foundation.  It is evident through our actions of how sincere we are when we are in situations and it is through these situations that can be noticed.  This nation has been given many gifts of wisdom throughout its existence yet we have become one of the most selfish nations ever created and it is all due to the lack of sincerity we have in our hearts to the One who first instilled these gifts to our lives.

Has anyone ever apologized for an act in which they have been caught?  Have you heard the old expression that the only reason that these people (maybe you) are apologizing is because they got caught and were told to do such an act but in fact had no real repentance or intentions of true restitution coming from the heart?  I know that my parents made me apologize for some things that I did wrong when I was little that after the truth was found out and that I really did not enjoy that moment nor did I really mean the apology, but as I look back now I wish I had really meant those words for if I did maybe I would have saved me a whole bunch of ridiculous situations down the road.  Besides being embarrassed that whatever I did went wrong enough to get caught, I had no real intentions of making things right, I just wanted the problem to go away as quickly as possible.  Oh, how to turn back the clock and make things right with others the correct way.

As time went along and some of these patterns continued inside my heart I gained more selfish desires which overpowered the good heart that God first saw in me before I was born.   I am amazed that God stuck with me for so long before truly opening my eyes and heart to His Word and how He wants me to minister to people.  When I look back at some of the settings of my life my heart cannot help but immediately ache for he knows what he did was utterly horrid to the people involved in those issues.  No, those issues were not harmful enough to cause the death of a life but many of those times the events involved could have affected how people had relations with others in the future, so in truth, yes, it could have been life-threatening to others.  We must never forget that any single selfish act that is made public will have consequences not only upon you but it will have some type of long lasting effect on others as well.  While my “apology” might have gotten me passed that particular moment, it did not attain restitution with God for my wrongdoing and it is that portion of my “apology” that defined my sincerity.

As much as possible I do my best, with God’s help to guard my heart from ever giving the appearance or ever becoming deceitful to anyone for the truth cannot be fully received after deceit has been initially rendered.  It is this pattern of deceit that follows a person if it is allowed to be manifested for any sequence of time and if accepted long enough that deceptive pattern can be found in a nation as well.  It will grow until that lie becomes the truth and administered as such without hesitation, in effect becoming a law of the heart in which a body governs itself.  We have an excellent example of this in God’s Word concerning this type of sincerity of the people and it also serves as an example of how this nation’s heart has become; then it provides a perfect pattern of what will occur in our future as well.

A few weeks ago God shared with us a series of articles that dealt with the children of Israel and the fate of Eli and his household.  God showed us how important it was to listen to His voice no matter if it was a good word from Him or not.  God also showed us what occurs when we try and lower Him to our status and place Him alongside our gods.  God explained to us that no matter where we try to put Him, He is always first, He has no rival and that even in such human “captivity” He is in control.  God also provided in this study of 1 Samuel a lesson that when you handle God according to human standards and actions, He will always have a righteous and pure response to your finite decision.  This article will deal with a setting after the Ark of the Covenant was returned to Israel and what Samuel said to the people of Israel in accordance with what God had been telling them all along and how their words said one thing but their hearts told God another.  And it was the next phase of this heart condition of Israel that led to their changed status that has lasted until this day.

1 Samuel 7 is the text and passage that we will be covering here and it begins with the final movements of the Ark upon its return to Israel after being in the hands of the Philistines for an extended period of time.  The Ark was brought to a specific place and Samuel immediately called for every person in Israel to congregate in one area to receive instructions from God and it also serves as the setting of the sincerity that Israel claimed to have to do right in the eyes of God.  But we quickly see that over time this attitude really was not in place in their hearts but in mouth only.  1 Samuel 7:2-3 states: “And it came to pass, while the Ark abode in Kirjathjearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.  And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

It is known through this passage that a specific timeframe of twenty years passed while the Ark was sanctified in Kirjathjearim and while the Ark was returned from the Philistines Israel still lived under their control.  For twenty years after the debacle that Israel endured, the Ark was steadfast in a sanctioned place, yet after all that Israel had gone through they still considered the Ark to be a “toy” or “mantle piece” and did not place the true representation of the Ark in its intended place, their hearts.  It is true that the physicality of the Ark was amongst their land but evidently the children of Israel continued their “gifting” of the Ark’s presence instead of realizing that while the Ark and the presence of God was with them, God did not wish to stand idly around them but desired a relationship with them, a personal relationship that only two hearts that are in communication with each other can understand.  It is this specific detail as to why Eli and his houses lost their lives for even Eli did not align the Ark as an instrument of relationship.

The devastating loss of any battle or war, especially when the advantage needed is in your court, comes about there can only be one explanation of why things went south and that is whoever was in contact with that advantage did not fully understand the reason that it was in place.  There is no excuse as to why Israel did not figure this truth out for their own eyes had witnessed that loss and then had to live under Philistine control even though the Ark had been returned, but twenty years, really?  How sincere were the Israelites about having the Ark back in their possession?  Did they realize what a blessing it was especially after all the stories that they must have heard concerning the turmoil that the philistines had?  It is easy to believe that Israel through their own actions had no concern of the personal representation that the Ark represented in their lives; how do we know this to be true?  There are a couple of parts to this truth and these parts should have spoken volumes to Israel and it should speak the same amount to our lives today.

The first part occurs in 1 Samuel 7:3-6 it says that Samuel spoke to the entire house of Israel concerning what God wanted from their lives concerning the idols that they still had in their lives.  What?!??  You mean to tell me that after the children of Israel heard that God who was residing in the Ark tipped over the god of the Philistines’ statue that they still could not figure out what God should have meant to their hearts and where He desired to live?  Samuel has to once again reinforce what God had previously shown Israel about how to live and that God wanted to be first in every aspect of their lives at all times.  This was not a new concept to their ears for they had heard the same message all the way back to the days of Abraham.  God had not changed His plan for His people one bit yet the people of Israel could not figure this out for some reason.  It seems like the children of Israel finally get it when they proclaim that they wish to drop all of their idols and worship God alone.  In verse 5 Samuel says to gather all of Israel to one place and after they had congregated in the designated place they made the proclamation that they had given up all their gods and admitted that they had sinned against God and immediately after those words Samuel did what God had instructed him to complete.  But wait, there’s more to follow. 

The second part of this truth comes in 1 Samuel 7:7-8 where it talks about the realization and response to their gathering in a certain place.  This passage states that when all Israel was gathered in one place that the Philistines approached and threatened to destroy Israel.  For an enemy who did not understand who God was and where He should be dwelling it would seem like they were sitting ducks and were about to have their existence wiped out entirely.  But once again, Samuel reminds them that God is in control and to turn their crying towards God and allow Him to rule the day instead of the enemy around them.  WHY!??!!?  Why did Samuel have to do this again?  It is this point here that God wants us to understand about Him because if we continue to live with God as a shelved item or a person who we turn to when times are bad we shall not be sincere in our lives in God.  We will not be able to have an intimate relationship with Him because what Israel is demonstrating here is a Sunday and Wednesday going to church pattern and one that does not communicate with God each and every day.  It also represents why God says that He cannot stand religion because religion is not sincere only a true committed and continual relationship can claim this truth.

Israel had been in existence for some time by this passage’s words, long enough to have developed physical enemies that wished them to be annihilated and an eternal enemy that wished for the same ending.  How difficult was it for Israel to accept and to acknowledge that their existence was based solely on being separate from all other individuals, cultures, groups, and nations?  Countless times God had demonstrated His divine love for them through His many blessings and His protection over their steps.  Continuing, we find that after Samuel told the children of God to cry to Him again he made holy sacrifice to God and prayed for God’s protection over them while they had gathered in His name.  Why did Samuel have to tell the people to cry unto God, this should have been a given and if they had been sincere in their commitment to a relationship with God they would have already been on top of the sacrificial and holy ceremony that Samuel had to complete as well.  Israel is proof positive that if we are really seeking a relationship with God our sincerity shall never come into question with the important parties involved in such relationship.  Sincerity should never take a period of twenty years to engage, twenty years and even a lifetime to grow but never to begin.

Even after a major defeat in a battle, a long time under another rule, specific displays of God’s authority in their lives and they still missed the truth about God only wanting a relationship and to live in their hearts and not just in their land.  God performs another miracle in the land where the Israelites are all gathered and the Philistines are defeated and subdued so much that they never reached certain parts of Israel again.  Samuel then places a stone in a specific spot to serve as a reminder of what the sincerity of God did for Israel so that they would never forget who God is and where He longs to dwell.  In a very short time, we see that Israel’s sincerity was not very sincere at all for they eventually wished to join the ranks of the common and wanted a physical and earthly king instead of God being their total guidance and presence of separation.

It is this place where this nation stands today and it has become clear that we wish nothing to do with God and anything that He wishes for our lives.  We have decided to become independent through the means of self-guidance yet cannot seem to break the standard of the world through our worldly laws.  We scream and protest over not getting our way yet fail to see the underlying truth as to why our nation is in the state that it is in.  It is obvious that we do not want a leader who is protective of the Word of God nor do we want to ensure the safety of our lives on a continual basis.  Freedom to live as is a disastrous bill and declaration for we do not understand what authority we are giving to the king of this world over our lives.  God’s separation for His people from the world is the only way that we shall live in peace and harmony with others, but for some reason, we believe we can change the eternal order of death that rules this kingdom.

Israel came to this exact standstill and accepted the same action as we are currently, a grave mistake of greed and selfish acceptance that had millennia of consequences that are still aching the nation of Israel today.  The sincerity of Israel obviously was directed towards the world and the acceptance of their ideas that if they were like all others that they could manipulate their enemies into a friendly status, this was not the case then and it definitely is not the case today.  God and the sincerity of His existence inside our hearts provide the only way that one can achieve peace lasting long enough to make a difference in the lives of others.  Until we figure out that the separation of our lives needs to be from the world and not God our nations will be subject to divine destruction due to our choice of sincerity. 

No longer can we afford to believe that the world is more sincere in its efforts than God and there is no way that we can contend that by aligning with the world our sincerity can line up with God either.  Church it is a farce to believe that we can keep one hand holding on to God and the other holding onto the world.  As God’s Word declares He cannot inhabit sin and as long as we hold the hands of the world we are tied to sin.  God wants us to let go of the world and to trust Him for He is the origins of truth and love and the only way that we shall ever understand this way of life is to grab hold of both of His hands and turn our eyes towards Him.  This is the meaning of repentance and the understanding of sincerity through the restoration process that God provides.

DLB