Decision And Dedication

by CAPEWELL, P. | Category: The Disciple Life | Mar 1990

Indecision can be an insidious enemy taking years of potential service from a Christian life.

From time to time, God has faced His people with a clear challenge to be decisive. Joshua gathered Israel together and reviewed the Lord's goodness to them saying:

I brought your fathers out of Egypt .1 brought you into the land of the Amorites ... destroyed them... delivered you ... sent the hornet before you ... gave you a land and cities ... vineyards and oliveyards ... now therefore ... choose you this day whom ye will serve (Josh. 24:6-15).

This challenge was issued at Shechem, which comes from a root word meaning to start early in the morning, to load up for a full day's work. Today, God has brought us to our Shechem in the words of the poet:

Give God thy best! In true heart consecration

Offer to Him thy fragrant morning hours.

Think not to find His reconciliation

When darkness falls and thou hast spent thy powers.

Give God thy best! In unreserved surrender

Yield Him thy life in all its youthful prime.

Wait not until thy sun hath set in splendour

And thou hast nothing but the evening time.

At a later date, Elijah, perplexed by Israel's indecisive hopping from one foot to the other, gathered them to confront them with the words "How long halt (hop) ye between two opinions?" (1 Kings 18:21). Joshua had stood on the ridge of Shechem; Elijah on mount Carmel, which means a garden green with produce or a vineyard with thriving vines. From the clear vantage point of youth, with a life of spiritual fruitfulness ahead we say:

Give to Him life's brightest hours,

He will make them still more bright;

Give to Him your noblest powers,

He will hallow all your might.

Paul, writing to the Church of God in Rome, the city built on seven hills and whose name means strong, reviewed the goodness of God and called for a positive response saying, "I beseech you therefore ... by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom. 12:1).

From the skull-shaped hill outside Jerusalem comes our Saviour's own

bidding, "If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me" (Luke 9:23).

Ruth's Example

Naomi looked affectionately at her two daughters-in-law and three times she asked them to return to Moab as she spelled out the cost of continuing. The girls dissolved into tears. Then Orpah made a move. She kissed Naomi and slipped her grasp. It was a simple act, but with binding consequences. She was going back. Her shrinking figure moved eastwards towards Moab, its god Chemosh, and scriptural oblivion. Naomi grieves as Orpah leaves. Thank God, Ruth cleaves. Once more Naomi pleads with Ruth to go back with Orpah. While not sanctioning Naomi's word, the Lord allowed it to be the final probe which brought Ruth's decision and dedication into sharp focus. "Would ye also go away?" the Lord asked the twelve, drawing from Peter that noble commitment "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:67,68). So Ruth, challenged again, responded with those words of lasting dedication:

Intreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee:

for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God" (Ruth 1:16).

Marvellous promise of commitment on the Bethlehem road, which has inspired others to faithful allegiance. Fellow disciple, shall we respond with similar clarity?

In the glad morning of my day,

My life to give, my vows to pay,

With no reserve and no delay,

With all my heart, I come.

When Naomi "saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, she left speaking unto her" (1:18). In this way Scripture identifies the wellspring of Ruth's memorable choice, a steadfast mind. In the context, the Hebrew word indicates that Ruth strengthened herself to go. It is the same word which the Lord used when He exhorted Joshua, "Be strong and of a good courage" (1:6). Carrying, as it does, the, thought of steeling oneself against dissuasion, it challenges each of us to (re)pledge ourselves, whatever the cost or distraction, to the One who took up His cross for our sakes.

What a gracious Master He is! Despite our weakness and failure, if we will (rededicate ourselves with the "steadfast mind" of Ruth or the courage of Joshua, He will add His own enabling power as He promised to the Psalmist, "Wait on the LORD ... and He shall strengthen (the same word as steadfast, courage) thine heart" (Ps. 27:14 AV). Christian disciple, will you bow your will, resolve courageously here and now that you will live for your Saviour and Lord? then, praise His Name, He Himself will strengthen that commitment.

Take up thy cross; let not its weight

Fill thy weak soul with vain alarm;

His strength shall bear thy spirit up,

And brace thine heart, and nerve thine arm.

Ittai's Example

By a combination of naked aggression and subsequent show of subtle goodwill, Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Such was his eventual popularity that David had to leave Jerusalem. Rejected by his own people, the rightful king made his way over the Kidron and out of the city. Hundreds of years later, his son and Lord was to cross the same brook, likewise rejected and disowned. They both had had their triumphs and they both took with them a comparatively small band of faithful followers, willing hearted but weak in the flesh. Within hours, they both were to endure shameful abuse. Not that the insults, mud and stones that Shimei hurled at David bear any comparison with the shame heaped upon his Lord. Abishai would have done to Shimei what Peter tried clumsily to do to Malchus, but David had some of the gracious restraint that was to be so perfectly exemplified in the Saviour. Among David's followers was a recruit from Oath, named Ittai. Without wishing to discourage him, the warrior king faced his loyal follower with the challenging cost, "Wherefore goest thou also with us? return, and abide with the king... whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us, seeing I go whither I may?" (2 Sam. 15:19,20). How did the loyal recruit react? The place of safety and easy life was definitely back in the city with the newly-appointed, yet usurping, king. In contrast, loyalty to the man "outside the camp" meant hardship and difficulty. Ittai didn't waver. His decision was made, his dedication was total. "As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, even there also will thy servant be" (2 Sam. 15:21).

The Supreme Example

In chapter 6:8, Isaiah responded to the question, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? by his willing declaration, "Here am I, send me". Isaiah had seen the glory of the One who in the counsels of deity long before made a similar commitment. The Son of God was dedicated to the total fulfilment of the Father's will to redeem mankind. That dedication can be traced in unfaltering tread down through law and prophet, psalm and proverb and across the gospel scrolls. The Man whose "legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold" is consecrated in His purpose. With deep awe and with a sincere prayer to be positively influenced by the review, we briefly retrace the life of Him whose feet, "like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a fire", have left their indelible footprints burnt into the scriptural record. "Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith... Lo, I am come... to do Thy will, 0 God" (Heb. 10:5,7). That sense of purpose re-emerges when, in the first record of His spoken words, He declares, "I must be about My Father's business" (Luke 2:49 RVM). This compelling necessity to dedicate His life to His Father's will runs like a golden strand through the gospel records. "I must preach suffer... walk... work ... be lifted up ...be rejected...killed and...rise again". He who is from the beginning ever has the end in view. Nothing, no one, will divert Him from this sacred purpose. He is the consecrated Christ. Tired, hungry and thirsty, He must go through Samaria and, though pressed by His disciples to eat, He declared His predominant purpose "to do the will of Him that sent Me" (John 4:34). As He unveils to His disciples that He "must go ... suffer... be killed ... be raised up" (Mat. 16:21), Peter's well intentioned, but misguided, protests are sternly dismissed. When the Pharisees try to send Him out of Jerusalem because of Herod's death threat, the Lord insists with equal emphasis, "Go and say to that fox... I must go on My way today and tomorrow and the day following" (Luke 13:31-33). And so the Lord's decision and dedication brought Him "outside the camp" from where, once more, He calls, "Come follow Me".

I heard His call:

Come! Follow! That was all.

My gold grew dim,

My heart went after Him.

I rose; I followed; That was all.

Who would not follow if they heard His call?

CAPEWELL, P. | Mar 1990
The Disciple Life