The Two Forces Driving Humanity

Ecclesiastes 2:10 NIV

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.  My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.

What Matters Most To You?

This year I have been working as a substitute teacher.  I receive class assignments by going to a website that tracks my workdays on a calendar.  When a teacher makes a substitute teacher request, it pops up on my calendar and then I can decide if I want to accept the assignment or not.  Some are for half a day and other for six full hours.  Sometimes teachers request me personally but usually the assignments go out to all the pool of substitute teachers and the first of us to accept the job for the day gets it.  Recently I accepted a job working in a kindergarten class at a particular school but within an hour, I was removed from the job and the notice came to me that my services were no longer needed.  I was disappointed to hear this as you never know when a job will come available or even if one will.  A week later another kindergarten class assignment from the same school popped up and I quickly accepted the assignment but again, after a few hours, I was notified that my services were no longer needed.  I had heard that sometimes teachers post jobs and then remove them if a favorite substitute of theirs becomes available to take their class and I grew increasingly offended the more I thought about this.  I had never worked at the school that had these kindergarten assignments and so I was pretty certain the teachers there didn’t know me.  Did the teacher pull the assignments from me because I was a man?  It smacked of discrimination to me!  What also bothered me was that once a substitute teacher accepts an assignment for a certain day that person is locked into it and is not notified of other possible assignments for the same day.  One can decide to not take the assignment later but then that person can’t work that day for any other teachers.  If a teacher cancels an assignment too late, the substitute is prevented from accepting another job for the day.  I began to stew over this and I considered sending the teacher that pulled my assignment an email expressing my feelings about her doing so.  It felt like I was rejected and treated unfairly.  I wanted the teacher to know that I was not just a name on a list but a real person who did not like being rejected or considered not good enough for her class.  I counted; my needs were important and I deserved more respect.

Perhaps you too have felt rejected and wanted to make sure others knew you counted, that you ought to be appreciated.  You have been pushed aside or gone unnoticed.  Have you ever wanted to shout, “Look at me”?  “I can do the job!”  “I should get the promotion!”  “Love me too!”  “Pay attention to me!”  “Care about me!”  Maybe you feel that way now; that your hard work and creativity and sacrifice is not given the value it deserves.  You feel frustrated that you might never achieve your goal, never accomplish in life what you think you should.  You are at a dead end and it is maddening to consider that your life is unfulfilled and you may never reach your potential.  What should you do?  How does one respond to feeling boxed into a corner of lost dreams and anonymity?  Should you in some way “fight back” and reclaim your life?

A pillar of modern humanist psychology is the call for “self-realization”.  By humanist, I mean any treatment of psychology that does not view humanity mechanistically as if people are little more than machines.  Nearly everyone who sees people as really free and independent believes that a goal for all of us is “self-realization” or the very similar “self-actualization”.  It is held by nearly all that we ought to make it our goal in life to assert ourselves, to gain our place of prominence among others and fulfil our purpose.  Many Christian teachers believe these strivings are essential to having a good life.  In fact it is assumed by many that self-realization is God’s plan for us.  We do of course see examples of self-realization being practiced in the Bible; it is not just a modern phenomenon…one could say it goes as far back as Adam and Eve.

Let’s consider each of the three strivings that put together are known as self-realization.  The first, the urge to establish one’s worth is illustrated by King Hezekiah’s actions when representatives of the Babylonian government came to visit him.  Hezekiah received the messengers and showed them all that was in his storehouses — the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine oil — his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. (2 Kings 20:13 NIV)  Most of us would say that there is nothing wrong with asserting ourselves.  We need to let others know who we are and what we have done.  In Hezekiah’s case, he simply pointed out how productive his work had been and the success he achieved.  Hezekiah extended his own reputation by giving the tour of his possessions but forgot something critical in doing so.  He did not gain his wealth on his own. 

A second component of self-realization is the push to gain prominence.  We all believe we should be given the opportunity to make something of ourselves and Aaron and Miriam were not exceptions to this.  The two were frustrated that Moses their younger brother, who was charged with leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land was not giving them enough say in the decisions being made.  The nation of Israel needed their leadership they believed and it offended them to not be more involved in how the nation was run.  Miriam and Aaron wanted Moses to show them respect by deferring more to them when he made decisions and directed the people.  Finally their frustration spilled out in the infamous complaint, "Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the Lord heard this. (Numbers 12:2 NIV)  Is this any different than trying to get a promotion you think you deserve, wanting your husband or wife to respect all you do for the family, being upset that you aren’t recommended for a teacher’s assistant position, getting frustrated for the lack of support you receive in the church motions you present, or being left off a committee because others in the club are move popular?   Who doesn’t want to be known for the good they have done and the insight they have?  The push to gain prominence is natural and normal.

A third component to self-realization is the common goal of wanting to fulfill one’s purpose.  Books have been written on this topic and many have decided this is our most important task in life, fulfilling our purpose.  If we look at Demas from this perspective, we can take exception with the Apostle Paul’s complaint about him.  Paul said of Demas,

“Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.” (2 Timothy 4:9-10 NIV)  No one wants to be accused of desertion but if you take Demas’s position in this, he was simply fulfilling his purpose.  Who knows why he left Paul?  Maybe his family needed him.  Perhaps he wanted to take up leadership in a church where his talents could be put to better use.  It might be that he had always wanted to be a lawyer and so he was following his dream.  Can we really fault Demas for wanting a change?  Perhaps Demas really did know what was best and he was upgrading the quality of his life.  Can that be criticized?

In every example described we have self-realization exhibited in real lives.  None of these people thought that what they were doing was wrong.  They in fact probably were congratulated by friends and perhaps also family members for making tough decisions to put their lives together.  Self-realization is reasonable and even celebrated yet it is not Christian and not even possible.  For those who decide to build their lives without God, self-realization is normal and natural.  The belief that we stand alone in a world that is sometimes for us and other times against us is growing in popularity but irrational.  The push for self-realization rests upon the belief that in the end it is just me and just you who must decide how we are to live and what we will do about the direction of our lives.  But what if we aren’t alone in this?  What if each of us is more than just one?

There is a declaration the Apostle Paul makes that is rarely taken as seriously as its importance to humanity warrants.  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV)  This conclusion that Paul draws and that we must consider if we are to fully think through who we are and what we are doing with our lives is that each of us is never independent.  Job, despite his misery, realized not pessimistically but realistically the part God plays in each life. Man's days are determined; you (God) have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. (Job 14:5 NIV)  It is impossible to be in charge of what we do with ourselves if God decides how long we shall live and what will come of our accomplishments.  The prophet Daniel told the Babylonian king Belshazzar that it did not matter what he hoped to get done, the Lord would not let him live until morning and the kingdom he so proudly ruled and worked to preserve would be pulled apart.  “…God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end…Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."  (Daniel 5:26-28 NIV)  The prophet Isaiah quoted God when he declared the situation each person faces, For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?  His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?  (Isaiah 14:27 NIV)

Whatever we have planned or look forward to getting done must take into account that how long we live is determined by God.  The writer of Ecclesiastes, whose wisdom is unmatched by those not named Christ or Paul, pointed out that no matter what we accomplish or how close we come to reaching our potential, the entirety of our accomplishments slip from our hands in the end and all we will be left with is our souls, the fate of which is determined by our Creator.  The myth of self-realization is as ludicrous as the belief that the moon is made of green cheese.  Every decision we make must take into account God and what He is doing with us.  The thought that is the most reasonable and rational at any moment is the one Paul offers.  “I am not my own.  I am bought with a price.”  Because this is so, self-realization is impossible.  As we shall see, God not only determines what will be the outcome of our lives, He is a part of every action we take and every thought we generate.  We don’t exist as just self.  There is more to us than that.  And we might add, “Thank God it is so!”

Earthy Lives

Recently we went camping and it was quite the adventure.  Of course we forgot major items…like pillows, a bin for washing dishes, a first aid kit.  Fortunately no one got hurt, we figured out a way to wash the dishes and who needs pillows when you have arms where you can rest your head.  We were surprised when we got to the campground by the weather.  We should have known better than expect warm weather like we had at home.  The campsite was right by the ocean a couple hours north of San Francisco which is famously foggy in the summer.  Not only was the fog so thick that we could not even see the ocean despite it being right next to us but it was freezing cold.  I was the only one without a sleeping bag and the blanket I had was too small so I tossed and turned all night trying my best to get warm.  The next day I sat next to the fire and did not wander far from it.  The funny thing about camping is that we intentionally go somewhere where we will be dirty all day, smell like we came out of a forest fire, have to go outside into the cold in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, get bit in the evening by mosquitoes and have no access to our cell phones.  For a few days, we were “earthy”.

When you think of someone as being earthy, you probably have one of two ways of interpreting the description.  One, the person is interested in the environment, not into technology, grows vegetables, rides a bike to work and doesn’t take showers very often.  Earthy people avoid shaving, live in rustic settings, are either strongly for guns or against them, let strange animals wander about on their property.  Another way to think of one who is earthy is that the person is casual, easy to get to know, does not try to impress others but is always “just themselves”.  Earthy people are relaxed and comfortable with themselves, may belch in public and are unconcerned about how they pronounce words or their choice of words.  But when we talk about being “earthy” with regard to our discussion today, it will be to describe what the Bible literally says about you.  You are earthy.

To do justice to the discussion of the earthiness of humanity, we must take a brief journey into the far ancient past.  The Bible is rather opaque in its account of what took place before the six days of creation and the putting together of Adam and Eve.  The Bible provides some hints at what occurred and we must admit that we might be wrong about what we think it is saying.  In the quite old book of Job is a fascinating passage that is generally overlooked.  "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?  Tell me, if you understand.  Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!  Who stretched a measuring line across it?  On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?  (Job 38:4-7 NIV)

What the NIV translates as angels is literally in the Hebrew “sons of God” but “angels” is precisely what the verse is describing.  There was a time in very ancient history when the earth’s structure was being put together that the stars “sang together and the angels shouted for joy.  Before Satan rebelled against God and threw the universe into chaos, there was great happiness at what God had done among the spiritual beings He had made.  The angels cried out their tremendous pleasure at God’s work.  But then the cataclysmic insurrection took place among the angels.  How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!  You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!   You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.  I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." (Isaiah 14:12-14 NIV)  This passage, although it is used metaphorically to describe the actions of the king of Babylon, also tells us about the rebellion of Satan and Satan’s allies among the “sons of God’.  Rather than submitting themselves to God during the early days of the universe, Satan incited anarchy among the angel beings (the morning stars) so that some joined Satan in the fight against God’s rule and others stood with God as Sovereign Lord.

Jesus refers to this war on God when He responded to the joy of the seventy-two disciples who during their mission trips found the demons submitting to the name of Jesus.  He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” (Luke 10:18 NIV)  Where did Satan fall when like a lightning bolt Satan was cast down from heaven?  Isaiah 14 tells us it was to the earth.  Revelation 12: 7-9 agrees.  And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.  But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.  The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. (Revelation 12:7-9 NIV) Our Lord saw this before He became a man born in a manger.  He saw this before the earth was made the home of humanity.  Now, we are going to speculate about something and we might be wrong in this but it seems to be the case.  There is a fascinating set of terms our Lord uses to describe the earth before the six days of creation.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  (Genesis 1:1-2 NIV)

So in the beginning when Satan and Satan’s fellow anarchists existed and the angels who were loyal to God existed, the heavens and the earth existed.  Isaiah tells us of the existence of heaven and earth when the terrible rebellion took place. How long the heavens and the earth existed before the six days of creation occurred, we have no way of knowing.  But if Satan and Satan’s allies were cast down to earth it is not surprising to discover something rarely discussed about the earth before God prepared the earth for the coming of mankind.  It was as the NIV translates it, “formless” and “empty”.  These two English words do not give us the complete picture of what the earth was like during that time.  Formless and empty are translations of two Hebrew words that rhyme: “thohu” and “vohu”.  The first, thohu, speaks of wreckage and chaos.  So before God made the earth ready for mankind, it was wrecked and full of chaos.  The second term, Vohu speaks of that which is under judgment.  So the earth, at the time the six days of creation began was under judgment and wrecked.

In Genesis 1: 3, God reclaims the earth for His special creation, prepares it with loving care for the “apple of His eye”, those made in His own image, humanity.  The chaos is pulled into order, the wreckage becomes a beautiful paradise and then at the pinnacle of the six days, God crafts man out of the dirt of the earth and breathes a spirit into him.  People are not just spiritual beings, they are earthy and spiritual, a part of the earth and a part of God.  But Satan was not willing to idly sit by while God established a new society on the very spot where he had ruled.  Satan, as a serpent, tricked Eve into rebelling against the God who gave her life and Adam chose loyalty to his wife over the clear command of God and together, Adam and Eve pulled the universe into chaos once again with their Sin and rebellion against God, the perfect environment for Satan to flourish.

Satan is called the “god of the world” in 2 Corinthians 4: 4 in the KJV, the “god of this age” in the NIV.  Both are correct as the Greek word that is used in the verse can be translated either way.  Satan has authority both in this age and in the world where the Lord cast him.  Here though is the key point.  The full verse reads, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (NIV)  Satan’s chief skill set is to convince people they don’t need Jesus Christ and that they are better off not involving Him in their lives.  Paul’s accusation leveled against a sorcerer says much about the sorcerer but even more about Satan.  "You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10 NIV) If Elymas the sorcerer was a child of the devil, an enemy of everything right and full of all kinds of deceit and trickery, what does this say of the devil?  We must be careful here to realize that Satan is known most for fooling the world and shifting the world’s opinion of what God is really doing.

No one ever thinks they have been caught in a trap of Satan’s.  Eve didn’t.  She thought she made the decision all on her own to eat the forbidden fruit.  Adam simply chose Eve over God.  You never enter into one of Satan’s schemes thinking you have been fooled.  Otherwise you would see right through it.  When you come alongside Satan in his rebellion against God, you don’t generally think about Satan at all.  You are just mad, you feel like you have been treated badly, you want something you don’t have, you are frustrated, you are having too much fun, you are bored.  Satan doesn’t attack God when he comes after you; he gives you an option that makes sense.  David didn’t commit adultery with Bathsheba because he wanted to rebel against God!  He slept with her because it seemed reasonable to him and it was reasonable to Bathsheba.  Peter did not stand up to Jesus’ insistence that He would soon die because he was fed up with Jesus; he did so because he thought Jesus was being too pessimistic and not trusting the Father enough to see Him through this new crisis.  Jesus knew this contention of Peter’s came straight from Satan and made that clear when He demanded, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:23 NIV)  Satan makes certain that when we rebel against God, it seems reasonable to us and perfectly normal.

Satan’s great plan; it is his plan since the earth was in chaos and he saw what the Lord did in six days, was to somehow cut off the connection between heaven and earth, to make humanity self-reliant, independent, secure.  Satan does not want us broken-hearted, depressed or sick.  Satan wants us confident, sure of ourselves.  Satan wants us not needing God, functioning well without Him.  But when we begin to see who we really are, when our false sense of independence starts to unravel and we realize that we are sinners and we have an emptiness and real brokenness that only God can make right, the sham is uncovered.  Satan is the liar and father of all lies and life without God, without Him at every inch of it will fall apart.  Jesus Christ did not die so that we might live free of God at times but that in every way we build our lives in Him.  We seek Him with every decision we make, turn to Him at every moment, trust Him with every part of our day.  Satan has fooled the world into thinking we don’t need God.  We don’t have to turn to Him, don’t have to seek Him with our decisions and circumstances.  It is a lie.  Every inch of life needs Christ to fill it and you are not the exception, you are the rule.  Turn to Christ!  Turn to Him again and again.  Don’t stop turning to Him.  He is your Savior…not just for Heaven but also for Earth.