Eight: Facing the Mirror

EIGHT

Facing the mirror

There are only two directions associated with a mirror; one looks toward the mirror or one looks away from the mirror. There may be, therefore, only one of two images in a mirror: a face or a back. If you stood on one side of a two-way mirror, and you had to read the lips of the person whose face you saw, once he should turn away, all communication would be lost. Your communication might then be ‘turn back around’ - oh, but wait! He can’t hear you. You bang your fist against the mirror: perhaps, you reason, he may feel the movement. When that fails, there is still recourse. It is simple: send someone around and through the door, into the room with the message to turn back around. Did I say simple? Well, you see that there are only two working directions.

Judges 5:9 shows one of them, “My heart (my mind) is toward . . . ”

Now, if that person on the other side of the two-way mirror knew he was supposed to face the mirror to communicate, his turning deliberately away might eventually get under your skin. 1 Kings 14:9 paints the picture, “But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke Me to anger, and hast cast Me behind thy back.”

How do we communicate with each other? We face the people we talk to. Sometimes, I multitask, turning to what I am doing while I talk. They usually find their way back into my face. However, what would happen if my habit was to turn my communication away from them? They might wonder why I stopped talking before I reached the end of the sentence. They might misunderstand what I said. They might even take offense.

Communication is key.

What if I asked a question and that other person chose not to answer. “Honey, do you love me?” (Long pause.)

Deuteronomy 30:17 puts it, “But if thine heart (your mind) turn away.”

Okay. So you understand the concept, but, you are still a little vague on the particulars. You say, I go to church; I don’t hurt anybody; I . . . and then your voice trails as you imagine yourself as a Jew in Jesus’ day. You say, I go to synagogue; I don’t hurt anybody; I . . . and then your voice trails as you imagine yourself as a Hebrew in Moses’ day. You say, I sacrifice at the temple; I don’t hurt anybody; I . . . (Excuses through the ages: they all sound alike). What about that idol beneath the pillow in your tent? But, what’s that you’re saying, “Crucify Him?” And, what about that Sunday after-church glow? “Yeah, let’s go shopping at J. C. Penny.”

We find in Jeremiah 17:5, “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart (whose mind) departeth from the Lord.”

There are many ways to turn away from the mirror. Without the ingredient of personal tragedy, many people simply don’t seem that interested. What is happening when a person turns from the mirror? What are the mechanics involved?

Ezekiel 14:3 gives us a clue, “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart (their

mind), and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of

at all by them?”

What are they paying the most attention to in this example? So what if they don’t bow to graven images - there is something that smacks of importance in their estimation; something that is raised in opposition to communication with God. Now, I know that man constantly slips up. You know that. What is more important, God knows that.

King David lived a violent life as a warrior. He killed people. God wouldn’t let him build the temple because of the blood on his hands, but God forgave him, loved and blessed him, called him a man after His own heart.

David slipped up; he had an affair with a married woman; he had her husband murdered. God killed his first son by that woman, but He forgave David, loved and blessed him, called him a man after His own heart.

David made mistakes but always turned back to the mirror, craving communication with God.

Now, Solomon also had a relationship with God. God blessed Solomon with wisdom, riches, and peace. But Solomon turned away, stopped communicating.

1 Kings 11:4 points to the difference between David and his son, “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart (his mind) after other gods: and his heart (his mind) was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart (the mind) of David his father.”

As has already been pointed out, false gods and graven images are not the only things people turn away to. But, whatever they turn to, communication with God is sacrificed: is accounted and esteemed of lesser value. Choices are made.

See 2 Chronicles 16:7, “Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.”

By turning away, people set in motion spiritual laws (Universal Spiritual Mechanics, or USMs) that have results on the corporeal plane.

Proverbs 1:31-32 shows that you reap what you sow, “Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”

I’ll say it again, communication is key.

King Saul chose communication with a familiar spirit over communication with God. He had communication with God but failed to retain it.

1 Chronicles 10:13-14 tells it, “So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; And inquired not of the Lord: therefore He slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.”

Why was Saul a ‘transgressor’? Saul had entered into a contract with God. A covenant with God may be seen as a peace treaty. With every covenant, with every contract, terms and conditions are set up as

the boundaries of the agreement. A ‘term’ that provides a consequence for a type of action is called

a law - it governs the covenant. Saul did not act in ignorance.

Generally speaking, even when we turn away, There is a remedy: just turn back. It is not a game that God should put on His sniper camouflage and pick us off one at a time. The whole point is communication. You have to ask yourself, ‘why has God invested such an effort in calling us back’? Does it seem that God’s ultimate goal, after all that, is to destroy us anyway? I say God never really wanted to destroy anyone. Just look at the lengths to which God is willing to go to have us back.

Just look, for instance, at Jeremiah 26:13, “Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent Him of the evil that He hath pronounced against you.”

God is not unchanging, but willing to change in a heartbeat to have us back again. That may, in fact, be seen as God’s major campaign. See the two Kings.

1 Kings 12:27 says, “Then shall the heart (the mind) of this people turn again unto their lord,” and 1 Kings 18:37 says, “Thou hast turned their heart (their mind) back again.”

So, let us ask the question. What is ‘turning away’, exactly? Is it a total, even aggressive, rejection? I don’t think so - that would put them squarely in the enemy camp: no, we are talking about God’s chosen, His elect; we are talking about God’s peculiar treasure. So then, what is ‘turning away’? If it is not total, quite frankly, it is partial. If we go back to the example of the two-way mirror, does that other person stop talking when he turns away?

That can be accomplished while still facing the mirror. More likely, he is still talking. He just doesn’t want you to be able to read his lips. He knows that the terms have been set that he must face the mirror, and here is where free will comes in, he wants to say ‘this little bit is just about me’. That is where a conversation becomes a monologue.

Divided attention is like the steam lost from a tea kettle. It is dissipation. Even so, God holds out for our return. He wants our focus on Him. There is a work in progress that requires it. In the case of King Saul, it was put forward that he had transgressed against the ‘word’ of God. God did not stand at Saul’s elbow and tug at his sleeve, saying, “No! No! Don’t deal with familiars!” But, there was the covenant; there was the law. Saul was as versed in the word of God as any other of his day. There were, also, the prophets. In fact, it was Samuel that Saul sought out, and that tells us one important, but overlooked fact.

Samuel spoke the word of God, but Saul gave more credence to the messenger. Saul had ‘made flesh his arm’. Refer back to Jeremiah 17:5, also refer back to 2 Chronicles 16:7. Some people stand waiting, longing to hear the voice of the Lord, but the voice is already there.

See Deuteronomy 30:10, “If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart (your mind), and with all thy soul.”

And let me just quickly add that God’s communications to us have been greatly misunderstood. God has never said, “So, you’ve dissed Me again!” (ZAPPP!!!)

He says things more like this: Jeremiah 44:7, “Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls.”

Our existence began within the framework of a relationship (that means communication) with God. How, I ask, could turning away not be a serious issue? Any man or woman that knows what it feels like to suddenly find out their spouse has been cheating on them can understand, and even sympathize, with the next verse: James 4:4, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

It has been said that there are two ways to learn: one, you are truly interested; two, it is hammered into your head by repetition. So, I’ll say it again. Communication is the issue. You can turn toward the mirror and communicate with God, or you can turn to the world and talk to it. If you talk to God, people will see the proof of it. If you talk to the world, people will see the proof of it.

1 John 4:5 points to the evidence, “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and

the world heareth them.”

We all know people out of whom we never hear a spiritual word, neither truth or righteousness, nor mention of God or Jesus. They speak exclusively and ‘offensively’ of the world. They speak of eating and drinking, or sport and entertainment, or their individual right to do and say whatever they choose. They are preachers of the world, seeking converts. They have only hatred for anything higher than themselves. They speak to their own, and their company is legion.

2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us, “In whom the god of this world (the spirit of worldliness) hath blinded

the minds (spiritual eyes) of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

It always begins as divided attention. One first forsakes belief (or focus), by turning away. Then one’s spiritual eyes (their minds) become blind to what is behind them. It is a truth expressed in a common saying: “out of sight, out of mind.”

It is not possible that we should behold both God and the world. We are reminded of the scripture that tells us we cannot serve both God and Mammon. It is just not possible. In our reality, we see one thing at the exclusion of something else; we think or say one thing at the exclusion of something else; we can believe in and serve the one only by exclusion of the other. This is called the universal law of displacement. Our corporeal law of displacement is a reflection of this: fill a glass with water; drop a rock in the glass; water spills out of the glass. The two may not occupy the same space.

See the law at work in Hosea 2:5 & 8, “She said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.”

God is working a work that must be accomplished in circuit. Electricians know that there are both exclusive and inclusive circuits. In certain circuits, to cut off one light is to cut off every light that follows it. In God’s circuit, every light is required to be lit. To look beneath the surface of the laws that God gave to Israel is to see a circuit that is intended to pass through each light, returning to the source what was sent from the source. The laws and sacrifices had an underlying purpose.

See Hosea 6:6-7, “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men (but maybe not like the ‘sons of men’) have transgressed the

covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.”

Men made the circuit exclusive. It became about the doing of the deed rather than the relationship. Men sought to retain willfulness, power and advantage over other men. A relationship with others is part of the relationship with God, for the circuit must be complete and whole. What we freely receive must be freely passed on: there can be no bottlenecking.

See the circuit in Deuteronomy 10:19, “Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

God was prodding man in the right direction. In regard of that ‘right’ direction, it must be said that all attempts were made to get man to face the mirror again; to turn back to God and resume the relationship. We may view, therefore, certain of life’s evils in a new light.

1 Corinthians 11:32 is an example, “But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”

Imagine for a moment that you are a commander in a war; your ground troops have engaged the enemy. The battle is bitter, some of your troops have deserted to the enemy side. To give your remaining troops an advantage, you call to your troops to retreat to your position: you are going to bomb the enemy. But your troops move closer to the enemy, closer to the influence that has already caused desertions. The jets are almost over the target; the bombs will be dropped at the predetermined time - so you call again to your troops, but minds have been blinded; they are in communication with the doomed: seeds have been planted and they must reap what they have sown.

And what of those men who led those troops with a will opposed to yours, who told their men, “Oh, it’ll be alright.”? When destruction comes, they will be hated by the men below them, and from above: there will be no sympathy.

The following verse speaks of religious leaders of the past but speaks as well of modern church administrators. The verse may be applied to those who covet donations of estates; those administrators who put much effort and time into appeals for trusts and wills, who make long-winded stock prayers, and yet are out of communication with God.

Matthew 23:14 says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”

There is a big difference between an occupation with the spiritual and an occupation with the corporeal. Saul was destroyed because he was occupied more with the messenger than he was with the message sender. The troops in my little illustration trusted their immediate superiors more than the commander.

We like to say that we are aligned with God, but does the evidence speak on our behalf? We take on the name of God (i.e., ‘godly’); we take on the name of Christ (i.e., ‘Christian’), but have we not taken those names in vain when our occupation is clearly with the things of the world? A child at the dinner table takes his eyes off of his mother, and thus attempts to choose on his own between the green peas and the cake - he reaches for the cake. Mom slaps his little hand and tells him that he can’t have cake until he eats his peas. Like that child, our face must turn back. There is a way that seems right to a child, but the end thereof is a slapped hand.

Matthew 6:32 directs, “(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”