Crying Out to God – 3
He leads me …
In Luke 19:37-40 we read –
Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:
“‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” (NKJV)
We read that as the disciples started to decent the Mount of Olives, they all felt that they had to praise God for the remarkable works He had done in their country – especially the ones that were carried out through Jesus. They started to bless God and cry out, "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest." This was in part a quote from Psalm 118:26, which seems to indicate that the disciples knew what they were doing.
However, in John 12:16 we read, “His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him” (NKJV). Maybe the disciples thought they had got to the stage where Jesus would declare that He was Israel’s Messiah and would then go on to deliver them from their Roman dictators and establish His kingdom. But as we know, this was not the case.[1]
While the disciples may have misunderstood what was happening, this was still a very significant time. We know this because when Jesus was told to rebuke His disciples for crying out with praise, He makes very clear, that it was completely necessary for them to bless God and cry out as they did. He said that it was so important, that if the disciples had not done it, the stones would have cried out.
Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey as the Prince of Peace. He would liberate His followers from self, sin, and Satan by defeating them in a way that only He, as God in a human body could do. On a cross. This was and still is, truly significant.
So what do we understand about the significance of the stones crying out? Jesus’ message was that if the disciples were forbidden from declaring Jesus as King, there was an expectation for praising God that was so powerful it would break out somewhere else, even from the lifeless rocks.
Were these words of Jesus meant as a symbolic meaning? Most likely, because we can see a similar principle of others filling the void, active around us today. It is at least as important as this story of the triumphal entry.
Today there are realities which God wants His followers to declare, because we are the ones best suited to do it. We understand the power of God. We know how and why He gets things done. Who else is better to affirm why Godly principles are important and really work?
In terms of what Jesus said, if we do not make a stand, "the stones will cry out." If the church is silent, others will step up and fill the emptiness. This means that the silence will be filled by those who believe they have the answer. But their responses are inferior to what God says in His Word, and possibly even deceitful.
We look at the morals and ethics of those in positions of responsibility, and we see often that there is no way that they measure up to God’s standards for how things should be done.
Many of us know what it is like to talk to a teenager about subjects such as sex before marriage, the damage that lying causes, and why we save some money rather than live for today, and spend all that we have when we get it.
The typical answer is, ‘Oh, but what about…’ and then they try to justify their behaviour by the examples set by those around them, which is classed as ‘normal’.
If Christians have a better way of living based on what the Bible, and especially Jesus teaches, why are we not seeing the Christian way of life being taught a lot more widely than it is?
We can see that Jesus’ principle of the ‘stones crying out’ has meant less than Godly standards for how we should live are being called ‘normal’ and we all suffer accordingly.
Another area where clear Christian direction is required is with the effect of human influences on the natural environment. The transformation of the environment and of landscapes by the actions of mankind has become one of the most critical issues for the 21st century. The multitude of impacts that humans have had on vegetation, animals, soils, water, landforms, and the atmosphere have not all been positive, and have in many cases caused serious problems worldwide.
Right back at the start of the Bible we read that God said when He created mankind, “Let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over the entire earth, and over everything that creeps and crawls on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26 AMP)
All of God’s creation (including humanity) is interconnected. The Bible tells us that we are not to use our power in a way that needlessly destroys or abuses nature. Instead, we have been given a special responsibility to be God’s overseers, managing mankind’s interaction with nature.
So how do we promote Christian principles in all aspects of our life? The first thing is to read our Bible. Yes that is an important commitment, but there is no easy way around it. And we do not read it just once, but continually so that we get to know and understand it. The second thing is to compare our lives to the corresponding biblical teaching. In this way we see how our successes and failures compare with what the Bible says, and we will be able to see why the biblical principles work. This then provides us with sound testimonies that we can share with others, and people will hear that the Bible says about …, and from our life experience we can illustrate how it works in practice.
[1] Could you explain Luke 19:37-40 please for me? - Answers From The Bible; http://answersfromthebook.net/could-you-explain-luke-1937-40-please-for-me/
