But first remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs. And secondly, I give you a warning. Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances.
Yahweh says to Joshua, “…do not turn from it [the Law] to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go”
Prior to his death, Moses told the people of Israel, “Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today…for it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life.” Deuteronomy 32:46 – 47.
There is a sense in which the Word of God is our inheritance, for by it we partake of the Divine Nature, by it we respond to the call of our Father and Lord Jesus, by it we have communion with one another; for it is not a matter of ink and paper, but of the eternal resonating Word of God emanating from the Trinity and permeating the hearts of those who He calls to Himself.
Jesus told the religious leaders that the flesh, the natural, profits nothing, but that the words He spoke were spirit and life. The scribes and Pharisees read and memorized the ink and parchment, but they missed Him to whom all that they read and memorized testified. The writer of Hebrews (Chapter Four) and Peter (1 Peter Chapter One) portray the Word of God as living and vibrant and full of life, and should it not be so? Is not God alive? Is not God vibrant?
Just as Jill in The Silver Chair, Joshua would need to remind himself not to trust in appearances but to trust in the Word of God. The atmosphere in Canaan with its opposition, both within and without the people of Israel, would tend to dull the mind, dull the hearing, and dull the eye of Joshua; hence the command to, “….meditate on it day and night.”
Somewhere Francis Schaeffer wrote to the effect that one of the reasons he regularly read the Bible was to keep his mind clear, for it doesn’t take long for the atmosphere of the natural world to dull our minds.
What is the atmospheric condition of my mind today? Is there a pollution alert – or is is clear and radiant with the Word of the Sun?
No comments:
Post a Comment