Too Many Voices

The world is a chatter box and the buzz is deafening. I have a Twitter account, a Facebook account, Instagram, and I opened a Parler account too. I have friends or followers from many walks of life, many backgrounds, and many convictions on those sites. Almost every one of those friends has an opinion.

Yesterday I read a Tweet from a liberal “observer” at political rally for conservatives. His take was vicious and amazingly keen as he seemed to not only be able to hear hundreds of conversations about how the conservatives were planning to overthrow government and violently discipline dissenters, but also knew their thoughts and how they believe based on where he was standing. I didn’t believe him.

But what if I had the same fears he does about conservative government? What if I saw… me… and my beliefs about morality as a threat to what I love and desire? Would I believe his words then?

Yesterday I also saw a brief clip of a conservative news brief. The commentator blasted a sharp and indignant warning. “You were worried about losing your rights?” he queried, “You’re losing them now!” My eyebrows raised. My heart sputtered for a second. And after looking closely at what he was talking about I realized his words were exaggerating a truth for one person. Not all of us. And I didn’t believe him.

But what if I didn’t have the discernment to see the difference between exaggeration and truth? What if I saw all his words as a looming wave that would overtake all I held dear? Would I believe him then?

Too many are talking. Too many are voicing threats, fears, exaggerations, falsehoods, misunderstandings, and imagination. Too many voices.

The problem is, words have power. I’ve always believed that just as our Creator used words to bring life, and flesh, and order to our universe, as His image bearers, our words have power to bring life, bless flesh, and keep order. When our words seek to do the opposite though. When our words are used to curse instead of bless, and criticize instead of encourage, we have changed the order and no longer look like the image of a loving God. We have instead, become the image of the enemy, “the accuser of the brethren” he’s called in Revelation 12:10.

As God is a God of order, the enemy is the author of disorder and his joy is in our inability to make peace. His joy is in our inability to escape the fear that all the talk has produced. And so we lean forward voices sharpened, ready to fight.

We feel that fighting is our only recourse, because if we stand for nothing, we’ll fall for anything, and all it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing. So we march with bigger signs, and we shout with louder voices, and we demand what has been stolen, from a gov. instead of a God.

And I said to one, “stillness is an answer,” and they looked at me as if I were a traitor.

But I recall Moses at the Red Sea:

But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will perform for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again, ever. The Lord will fight for you, while you keep silent.”

Exodus 14:13-14

I recall Elisha predicting a victory for Israel that did not include lifting a weapon:

For the Lord had made the army of the Arameans hear a sound of chariots, a sound of horses, that is, the sound of a great army; and they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians against us, to attack us!” So they got up and fled at twilight, and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys—indeed the camp itself, just as it was; and they fled for their lives.

2 Kings 7:6-7

I remember the sound of marching in the balsam trees:

The Philistines made yet another raid on the valley. David inquired again of God, and God said to him, “You shall not go up after them; circle around behind them and come at them in front of the balsam trees. It shall be when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall go out to battle, for God will have gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines.”

1 Chronicles 14:13-15

I remember three Hebrew boys losing a battle against a king’s morality, but gaining much more:

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we are not in need of an answer to give you concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods nor worship the golden statue that you have set up.”

But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell into the middle of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up quickly; he said to his counselors, “Was it not three men that we threw bound into the middle of the fire?” They replied to the king, “Absolutely, O king.” He responded, “Look! I see four men untied and walking about in the middle of the fire unharmed, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!”

Daniel 3:16-18 & 23-25

Again, and again, and again, through Scripture we see God’s hand of victory come when we trust in Him. Yes, there are times that we are supposed to act. But never before we inquire of Him. Yes, there are times we run, yell, speak, or fight, but never before we inquire of Him. Too many are talking without His love in their words, too many are fighting without His commission to guide them and back them up.

Faith asks many things of us, but nothing takes more courage than knowing there is a battle to fight, and choosing to be still.

Here’s the problem we seem to have, we seem to think people we disagree with are our enemy. But Paul told us that our enemy doesn’t have flesh and blood:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

Every time we put an earthly name and face on a spiritual enemy we are destined to fight long drawn out battles that we can’t win. My flesh is no match for the devil. But if I fight with spiritual weapons, I am far superior to my enemy, because I’m IN CHRIST.

There is an old hymn written by Martin Luther almost 500 years ago. For much of my life this song has been a reminder that my battles are not won by man’s ingenuity, my cunning, or my strength. My battles are won in my firm and un-moving faith in God.

1. A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he, amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
does seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.

2. Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right Man on our side,
the Man of God’s own choosing.
You ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth his name,
from age to age the same;
and he must win the battle.

3. And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God has willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

4. That Word above all earthly powers
no thanks to them abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours
through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever!

Martin Luther

This morning I read Psalm 12. It was the perfect reminder that God absolutely knows what is happening around me. Around us. God absolutely has a way prepared for me. God absolutely will not abandon His promises for me. I can stand still, I can wait, I can act at the right time, because He is faithful and He will arise.

Help, Lord, for the godly person has come to an end,
For the faithful have disappeared from the sons of mankind.
They speak lies to one another;
They speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
The tongue that speaks great things;
Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?”
“Because of the devastation of the poor, because of the groaning of the needy,
Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will put him in the safety for which he longs.”

The words of the Lord are pure words;
Like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, filtered seven times.
You, Lord, will keep them;
You will protect him from this generation forever.
The wicked strut about on every side
When vileness is exalted among the sons of mankind.

Psalm 12