Move or Die, Part Two: Scrap Metal
(Watch the sermon linked above to get a refresher on part one of this message.)
Read Time: 9 mins
Hezekiah son of Ahaz began to rule over Judah in the third year of King Hoshea’s reign in Israel. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, just as his ancestor David had done. He removed the pagan shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it. The bronze serpent was called Nehushtan. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before or after his time. He remained faithful to the Lord in everything, and he carefully obeyed all the commands the Lord had given Moses. So the Lord was with him, and Hezekiah was successful in everything he did. He revolted against the king of Assyria and refused to pay him tribute.
2 Kings 18:1-7 NLT
A few weeks ago, we discussed the necessity of movement. The entire story of the Bible seems to be about movement. The process of sanctification is akin to movement. If you don’t move, you’ll be stuck. If you don’t move, you’ll miss out on what God has for you. If you don’t move, you will die.
Let me catch you up. You know the story. Elijah prophesies against the king and queen and says that there will be no rain in the land until he gives the word. This puts Elijah on the run and God leads him to the Kerith brook where God uses ravens to bring him food. Crazy story. God used the brook and God used the ravens. That cannot be denied. However, the brook and the ravens aren’t magic or special at all on their own. They’re creations used by the Creator.
Eventually, God decides it’s time to move. The brook dries up, God decides it's time to go and Elijah is called to follow. God used the brook in a mighty way but Elijah can’t make an idol of the brook. No matter how much God used it in the past, he cannot allow the gift to supersede the gift giver. He has to follow God into the future and not get stuck worshiping the tools or testimonies that God used in the past. If Elijah had decided to stay at the brook, he would not have just missed out on everything else God had for him like calling down fire from heaven, meeting Elisha, or going up to heaven in a fiery chariot… he would have died. If we don't move we won't just miss out on what God has for us, we too will die.
This move is difficult for many of us. While we know stagnation will kill us, we still cling to dry brooks. This isn’t just a warning. That was in part 1. This devotional is a rescue. I want to talk about how we can be saved when we’ve stayed at dried brooks for too long.
Check out what we see in this story. Years ago, the Israelites had been attacked by a plague of poisonous snakes while trekking through the wilderness. They cried out to Moses for deliverance and God told them to make a pole with a bronze snake attached to it. God said that anyone who looked at the pole would be healed. Moses did just that and it worked. Everyone was healed. God has used some trivial things to accomplish His goals. He's used ravens for food delivery. He’s spit on eyes to heal sight. He spoke through a donkey. Someone dipped in a dirty river for their healing while another touched the edge of His jacket. A staff budded in one story and a fleece stayed dry in another. Now He’s using a snake on a staff. The Bible says that God purposely uses the weak, broken, and discarded things of this world so that we know the power is coming from Him and nothing else. That’s why God uses you.
But the people get stuck on the elementary tool that God decided to use instead of the God who decided to use it. God used this piece of metal on a stick, and now the Bible is telling us that the people are worshiping it. Instead of offering sacrifices to God, they’re offering sacrifices to the scrap metal He used. This may be something you’ve seen in your school, church, family, or culture.
Honor and remembrance of what God has done is important, but it becomes cultic when our honor shifts to idolatry. We are called to remember. Remembering what God did and who/what He used is important because it points us back to Him and His power. However, it’s an issue when we fixate on what God used and not God Himself. Nothing is wrong with what God used, it just cannot be misplaced and put above God Himself.
Some of us have seen the people God used become worshiped instead of worship only going to God Himself. We read Bible teachers more than we read the Bible. Some quote Ellen White more than they quote Jesus. Some worship physical health and prioritize veganism more than they desire spiritual health and prioritize a Christ-like character. Some are stuck on worship style and not worship. Some of us worship the systems and service planning instead of the God it's designed to point to. Some revere tradition over theology. We will stay in a broken system just because it’s what we’re used to or benefited from. We choose comfort over faithfulness. We honor past innovators at the cost of future innovation. This is what the Israelites are doing. They’re worshiping what God used years ago instead of being faithful to God Himself.
So how do we respond to this? I believe God is raising you up to help put a stop to these toxic cycles of false worship. Like 25-year-old Hezekiah, God may be ordaining you to put a stop to it. Hezekiah was a fighter. The Bible says that like David and Joseph, Hezekiah was successful in everything he did because the Lord was with him. No matter the opposition, Hezekiah had success because he committed his plans to the Lord. The Bible says he did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight and removed the pagan shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, removed the Asherah poles, and crushed the bronze serpent the people had been worshiping. Hezekiah’s boldness was used to save his people from idolatry. You are called to this same fight.
I believe that you like Hezekiah are uniquely designed to put a stop to this idolatry in your context. You may have been crafted to rescue your community from idolatry. I believe your experiences directly correlate to your call. Many of the people who God uses to dismantle faulty systems have a few things in common:
1. They have been affected negatively by those faulty systems and that hurt powers a sympathy towards the oppressed and a passion for liberation. Those who have been hurt by divorce are often passionate about fighting for strong marriages. Those who experience abuse are often the best allies and leaders against it.
2. There seems to be a unique hope, optimism, and belief in possible change. Regardless of the brokenness they see around them, they have a seemingly unrealistic faith in what can be. They think outside the box and don't assume something has to be how it is simply because that's how it has been. They see potential and go after it with genuine belief in its possibility.
3. They’re uniquely equipped and positioned to do something about the wrong that is going on around them. Those designed to fight faulty systems are typically endowed with the very gifts, insights, positioning, and power to do something about the system they despise.
You may see yourself in some of these traits found in liberating visionaries. Hezekiah also had all of these things. Hezekiah likely had a righteous indignation when it came to idolatry. A few chapters earlier you can read that Ahaz, Hezekiah’s father, blindly followed the example of the other detestable kings of Israel. Ahaz even sacrificed his own son, Hezekiah’s brother, in a pagan ritual. Hezekiah was emotionally drawn to this cause. He has been uniquely impacted by this faulty system of worship. He saw the hurt that false worship and blind following could cause. He didn’t just see it, he experienced it. I believe those who are called to fight oppression, injustice, and misalignment of any kind are often those who are affected by it emotionally. Your pain is often a compass to your passion. God may be calling you to fight against the very things that hurt you the most.
Your story holds the key to your call. What are you uniquely drawn to that everyone else thinks there is no chance of fixing? That’s what you’re called to solve. What do you have a sensitivity to but also a competence in? What do you have a unique belief and boldness in? That may be the call you’re compelled to cultivate. What do you deeply understand yet despise? That may be what you’re called to fight.
The other thing of note here is Hezekiah’s age. Many would look at Hezekiah’s age as a negative but it may have been used as a positive. Some would see his age as a weakness but God routinely uses the weak because they recognize their dependence on Him. Some would see his age for lack of experience but God saw it as an opportunity for immense faith. I remember asking a trusted elder to come to discuss an outreach idea with some other young adults at my church and they declined. I wondered why. They always give good input and wisdom and I wanted them to help clarify the vision. However, they informed me that they saw our inexperienced youth as an asset they didn’t want to taint. While we saw our age and inexperience as a negative, they saw it as a God-ordained opportunity. They explained that they believed God was with us and that our lack of experience would be used to make our faith bigger and less jaded. Sometimes older people have been so hurt that pain inhibits them from dreaming. Failure makes it harder for them to have faith. The elder explained that our inexperience and youth were God protecting us from hurts and pains that would have limited our vision. We would naturally dream bigger and wider because our lack of experience prevented us from landing on a mindset of “It’s always been like this” or “What if I get hurt like this again?” Children believe they can fly because they’ve never fallen, and this is the type of faith I believe may have Hezekiah had. You may have this same energy and unapologetic belief that God wants to use. Your lack of experience may actually be a good thing.
The next thing we see that Hezekiah employs is political action. The way we combat these faulty systems is not by passively complaining or giving up. It's by fighting. Hezekiah went to war, and you may need to too. I want you to recognize that while we are called to speak truth to power, power often only listens to the truth from other sources of power. That means that you need some weight to throw around if you want to make real change. The way Hezekiah fought the faulty government was not by standing on the outside and protesting. He fought the faulty government by becoming king.
I hear many complaints from many people but you know what I don't always hear? People getting involved. I know you may hate to hear it, but your run-down, dying, hypocritical church won't change with you complaining from the outside. In college, I prayed about whether God wanted me to stay in the Adventist organization or plant a church and lead from my own system. My conviction came by recognizing that Jesus didn’t run from the very system that tried to crucify Him. He fought for them. You can either fight the machine from the outside or change it from the inside. Instead, of just jumping ship, I feel called to help fix it. Jesus out-preached the pharisaical and legalistic leaders of His day from their own pulpits. Paul ran circles around the oppressive and broken systems of his day and one of the tools God used in that was the fact that Paul was more educated, experienced, and resourceful in this area than his enemies. I believe you are far more anointed than those who are trying to go against God, so outwork them. The God of angel armies is on your side.
While I don't think this is necessarily a young/old conflict, nor do I want it to be, I want to specifically talk to younger visionaries like myself. Can I be blunt for a moment? There's something we need to learn. Word on the street is that the stereotypical stagnant senior saint isn't listening to us cause they don't respect our work ethic. Why would they change what they're comfortable with for a group that doesn't even buy in, show up, or get involved? The reason our church is hurting is because fearful and faithless people show up and you don't. However, I believe with our energy, insight, and anointing from God, we can run circles around those who are trying to hold us down. Maybe the board is only being stupid because you aren't on it. Maybe you don't have the best facilities because you aren’t giving? Maybe there is no vision because you haven't cast it yet. It's time to learn the systems and get involved if we want to help them focus on Christ. Most organizations are essentially democratic. A lot of the stagnation you see is because fearful people show up and vote more than you do. Get involved.
Hezekiah had the position. He had the title necessary to do what God called him to do. The Bible says that those who desire the office of an overseer desire a noble task. We often demonize political or positional ambition because of the way some have abused it, but God actually wants us to have influence. In Esther 4, the Bible points to the idea that Esther was placed in the palace so that she would have the influence to liberate her people when they were oppressed. It's more than ok to be a leader, it's actually your calling. You are placed in positions of influence because God wants to use you. Almost all of your favorite Bible characters have positional or political prestige and power that they use for the glory of God.
Intentionality in influence is important, but I want you to realize that Hezekiah's real power didn't come from his political prestige, it was in his prayer life. While a title may help in some cases, the real necessity is obedience. The Bible says that Hezekiah was faithful to the Lord and carefully obeyed the commandments. It also says that he was successful in everything he did. I don’t believe those are isolated facts. The Bible says that God's commands are for our good. Obedience and faithfulness lead to success. Align yourself with the Holy Spirit and losing is not possible.
As we seek to move forward and follow God wherever He goes, we need leaders. God is raising you up as a leader who will smash the idols and rearrange the misplaced motives of those around you. It’s time to get unstuck. It’s time to be bold, and Christ-like as Hezekiah was. It’s time to do what is pleasing in the Lord's sight. It’s time to move forward.
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Send this to other visionaries. Send this to the Hezekiah’s you know. Encourage them because the fight to uphold the standard of God is not an easy one.
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