Read: Nehemiah 9:6; Isaiah 14:12-15
Reflect: Before
we start going through the Bible, we need to be aware of the Biblical
worldview and its implications. We all have some basic assumptions about
the world, the existence and relevance of God, and the meaning of life.
These assumptions color what we think the Bible is saying to us. We can
only understand what the Bible is actually saying if we put aside our
preconceived notions about God, the world, and life, and listen to the
Biblical worldview. Today’s passages were chosen with the Dong cultural
context in mind, but offer important insights that we can apply to
ourselves.
Dong people are traditionally animists,
meaning that they believe the material world they see is animated by
spiritual forces, and they worship many spirits believed to inhabit
their surroundings. When people experience trouble in life, it is due to
a spirit’s displeasure with them. A lot of time, energy and material
resources go into trying to appease the spirits. The Bible presents a
very different worldview from the Dong. Nehemiah tells us that the
spirits feared and worshipped by the Dong are ultimately subject to God,
their creator. Isaiah describes how Satan, one of those heavenly
beings, tried to make himself at least equal in power to God. God
responded to this challenge by casting him down. The Dong do not need to
fear spirits, because God has ultimate power over those spirits. When
Dong persons choose to trust God, they can know His protection from any
forces, material or spiritual, which threaten them.
We may not share this animistic
worldview, and may view this simply as an opportunity for the Dong to be
freed from needless fears. But let’s take a careful, honest look at our
own daily lives. What takes up most of your time and energy each day?
What governs your decisions about how you spend your money? What things
cause your worry? Like the Dong, we too spend our time, energy, and
material resources on trying to ensure a better life for ourselves. It
doesn’t take long to come up with a list of things other than God which
we may be trusting to protect us from bad times or even to improve our
life: our jobs, financial circumstances, the ever-changing political
climate, the weather, the opinions of others, our health…and the list
goes on. When we do this, then like the Dong we can find ourselves being
tossed about by the ups and downs of daily life. One moment we can feel
good about life, and the next we may be upset because something is not
going the way we want, hope, or expect. The things we worry about,
whether or not they come to pass (such as hurricanes or crisis), are
just as real for us as spirits are for the Dong, because they influence
our choices and actions. This passage is not just an invitation to the
Dong to be freed from their fears by following God; it is also an
invitation to us to find endless security in all of life’s ups and downs
by putting Him first in our lives.
Taking it Further: What do my choices and actions say about my trust in God? Do I want to change this, and how?
