An article called "Who's in Charge Here?" in the Summer, 2006, edition of "the Wilson Quarterly" opens with these words: "The 20th century taught us that repressed desires are the source of human unhappiness. Now, with more possibilities for pleasure and fewer rules and constraints than ever before, the happy few will be those able to exercise self-control." The article continues with an excellent assessment of the dangers of modern temptations. One section deals with the removal of restraints. Very little keeps people from doing whatever they desire to do. Among those restraints that are weakened today are stigma (social shame for wrong doing), financial constraints (there is always credit), family (broken families provide little reason to do right), neighbors (they used to watch out for each other), and church (where sin has all but disappeared). But in the Bible, temperance (self-control) is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and "every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things" (1Corinthians 9:25). Where are the Christians who will re-establish the virtue of self-control?
The Book of Numbers is a great book when looking for devotional material. In chapters 1-10 the people seem to be wholly following the commandments of the Lord. However, chapter 11 is the beginning of woes. The very first phrase is "And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord". In chapter 12, we find the murmuring moving up the ranks into the leadership and infecting Miriam and Aaron as they murmur against Moses. In chapter 13, ten of the twelve spies come back with an evil report concerning the land of promise. In chapter 14, we find the people wanting to make a captain to return to Egypt and then wanting to stone Joshua and Caleb for their report of faith. This chapter includes the decision of the Israelites not to go into the land of promise, and then their decision to go into the land of promise after the Lord told them they could no longer go in. The Israelites decide to go against the commandments of the Lord and try to take the land of Canaan on their own, only to be smitten by the Amalekites and Canaanites.
Tuesday's "Wall Street Journal" reviews a book called "A Perfect Mess" written by Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman. It makes a case that messiness has its purposes and is not always superior to neatness. This is appealing to me--one who has always struggled with messy desk syndrome. On one occasion I was pointedly told that my messy desk was a sign of a lazy Southerner and it was evidence for my lack of accomplishing much with my life. Ouch! That hurt. Why not just press the blade into my stomach and twist?
Genesis 43:32 states, "And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him, by themselves: because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination...
