The Plumbline

1  I've already run for dear life straight to the arms of  God . So why would I run away now...    7   God 's business is putting things right; he loves getting the lines straight,  setting us straight. Once we're standing tall, we can look him straight in the eye.   (Psalm 11:1, 7) In life, we face times when those around us are advising us to go one way, when we are pretty confident that God has something entirely different in mind for us. We are pulled between the advice of our friends and the nudge of the Spirit we are feeling.  King David asks a question that we all probably ask at one time or another - "Why would I run when I am already in the very best place I can be?"  There is no place more secure than directly in the hands of God. David is being challenged to flee to the hills - run away, escape, make himself scarce - so his enemies don't overtake him, so a challenge does not overwhelm him.  He has two choices ...

6-8 "There is far more at stake here than religion. If you had any idea what this Scripture meant—'I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual'—you wouldn't be nitpicking like this. The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath; he's in charge." (Matthew 12:6-8) One day, Jesus and his disciples are walking to their next destination.  They find themselves in the midst of a field of grain.  They are hungry from their journey and reach out to take some of the grain as a little snack to get them through.  What they do is forbidden - not because this was not their field to harvest, but because it was the Sabbath.  To the Jew, this was a day of rest - commanded by God many years prior to be kept holy; a day when men cease from work and pay attention to God.   Their simple actions of removing grain from the stalks, and rubbing them between their hands to remove the outer "husks" of the grain, was the issue - not that they were hungry, not their source ...