{"id":2126,"date":"2012-09-13T20:16:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T00:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldsandals.net\/?p=2126"},"modified":"2012-09-17T08:17:16","modified_gmt":"2012-09-17T12:17:16","slug":"tell-it-not-in-gath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/?p=2126","title":{"rendered":"Tell it not in Gath"},"content":{"rendered":"

Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked. I will make a wailing like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches, for her wounds are incurable. For it has come to Judah. It has come to the gate of My people\u2014to Jerusalem.\u00a0Tell it not in Gath… M<\/em>icah 1:8-10<\/em><\/p>\n

“Tell it not in Gath” is one of the most poetic and pathos-laden lines in all of Scripture.\u00a0 Gath was one of five city-states in the land of the Philistines, the avowed enemies of Israel.\u00a0 Goliath, the warrior-giant whom David slew,\u00a0was from Gath.<\/p>\n

We should expect our enemies, if we have\u00a0any, to attack us, to take delight in our misfortune.\u00a0 We are not on guard, however,\u00a0against the\u00a0wounds inflicted by our friends,\u00a0even family members, that not only take us by such surprise, but cut so much deeper.\u00a0 When we are abandoned by those closest to us, we feel\u00a0abandoned by everybody.\u00a0 David, the boy-hero who slew the giant would become king of Israel, only later to have his own son\u00a0Absolam\u00a0turn against him, conspire to wrest the kingdom from him—even plot to kill him.\u00a0 It is perhaps then that David pens the words found in Psalm 142: “Look to the right and see. There is none who takes notice of me. No refuge remains to me,\u00a0no one cares for my soul.”<\/p>\n

Our circumstances would be desperate indeed if that were literally true.\u00a0 If no one<\/em> took notice.\u00a0 If no one<\/em> cared. Even if David’s case, there were always faithful men around him who thought more of his welfare than their own.\u00a0 It is indeed a blessing—a working of God’s providence—that we\u00a0find those who draw near to us even as others, sometimes for reasons we can’t fully comprehend, \u00a0are forsaking us.<\/p>\n

There is, of course, one\u00a0person for whom the words of the psalmist were literally true.\u00a0 One who really was despised and rejected by everyone. Forsaken by even his closest followers.\u00a0Hanging naked on a cross between two thieves, he even cried out, “My God, my God, why have [even] you forsaken me?”<\/p>\n

Why indeed?\u00a0 This one question is of such magnitude that every other question we may ask is swallowed up by it.\u00a0 Every tragedy that we face, every sorrow, every rejection finds its meaning—its only meaning—in the answer to this one question.\u00a0 And yet, the answer is more than can be expressed with mere words.\u00a0 So much more than can be expressed in a few sentences.<\/p>\n

We are not\u00a0king David.\u00a0 We are not giant-killers.\u00a0 We are only struggling sinners, as he was.\u00a0 As Israel was.\u00a0 But if our faith (as small at times as it may be), if our trust, if our confidence is in David’s greater Son, Israel’s Messiah, the Suffering Servant, the God-Man, the Forsaken One, the Enemy-Forgiver, then our lives<\/em>, our actions and reactions, can be a book that others may read,\u00a0a kind of a sermon that others may listen to.<\/p>\n

It really is true that\u00a0our lowest point can serve as a vantage point from which we can see the “big picture” of life more clearly.\u00a0 Life is full of\u00a0physical dangers and we learn from an early age\u00a0to watch out for them.\u00a0 But the non-physical dangers are far more serious, yet easily overlooked.\u00a0 Just as the cruel words of a friend or family member can injure us more than the slash of a knife, so bitterness and an unforgiving spirit is a self-inflicted wound (the only truly incurable kind), that is more harmful than any form of abuse\u00a0from the outside,\u00a0whether verbal, physical, sexual or otherwise.\u00a0It\u00a0ends up hurting even those we love and have influence over, perhaps whether we realize it or not.<\/p>\n

In spite of everything, the LORD, through the mouth of his prophet, refers to Israel as “My people.”\u00a0 Let us take heart in that. May God give us the grace to always remember Whose we are (however unworthily), and Whom we serve (however feebly), and in Whom alone is our only hope of redemption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked. I will make a wailing like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches, for her wounds are incurable. For it has come to Judah. It has come to the gate of My people\u2014to Jerusalem.\u00a0Tell it not in Gath… Micah 1:8-10 “Tell it … <\/p>\n

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