The 5 Masculine Instincts - Lesson 4

Introduction

At the age of six i wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.

Sabbath ceasing means to cease not only from work itself but also from the need to accomplish and be productive, from the worry and tension that accompany our modern criterion of efficiency, from our efforts to be in control of our lives as if we were God, from our possessiveness and our enculturation, and finally, from the humdrum and meaninglessness that result when life is pursued without the Lord at the center of it all.

Martin Luther King Jr. declared that the gathering at the Lincoln Memorial would “go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.”

His words have become one of the most remembered speeches of world history.

King’s words were visionary.

He painted a picture.

For many that potential seemed impossible.

King’s clarity of speech and vision inspired generations to believe.

Far less known, but equally remarkable in its prophetic vision , was the final speech of King’s life.

He delivered his final public address on April 3rd, the night before he was assassinated.

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like any-body, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place.

But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight.

I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

He had no way of knowing that the next day would be his last.

In his final paragraph, King turned his attention to the death of Moses who stood on Mt. Nebo overlooking the promised land.

Moses knew he would not know or feel that land underneath his feet.

A Dream So Close

From that mountaintop, Moses could see far into the distance.

He could see the hole of that long-awaited promised land before him.

It was so much more than scenery to him.

Imagine Moses making it to the top of the mountain, finding a place to sit on a rock with his face to the west.

Behind him, the sun broke over the mountain, spilling light down onto the land.

It was the fulfillment of 40 years of leading Israel.

40 years of shepherding in obscurity.

40 years of learning and growing in his adopted Egyptian home.

What did he feel?

Joy

Relief

Exhaustion

How could he not be overwhelmed by it and by God’s faithfulness?

Now he was this close.

He could smell it, see it, hear it.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses.

Deuteronomy 34:4 “4 And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.”

How hard it must have been to hear those words.

But, Moses had faltered.

He had failed to trust and fully believe.

This final goal of his work would be left, for him, unfinished.

Moses offers no protest.

Deuteronomy 34:5 “5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.”

His story fades and gives way to Joshua’s.

He had taken Israel to the land, but he would not enter into it.

It is too easy to read Moses’ story as a holy man.

He was a resolute leader.

He is the image of conviction, determination and drive.

This is only partly true.

Moses was a man of ambition and he was a man who knew the disillusionment of failure.

He was like many of us who struggle to keep our ambitions in their proper place.

Moses is a warning of how easily our ambitions replace God.

How easily the finish line replaces the process.

The Disillusionment of Ambition

Ambition is rarely discussed.

It’s too complicated and too difficult to discern which parts of our ambitions are holy and which are just desperation or plain old vanity.

Ambition has driven men to accomplish great things.

It has driven many and sometimes the same men into destructive self-obsession and narcissism.

Too much ambition may kill you just as quickly as too little.

From a young age, we are encouraged in our ambitions.

You can be anything you want to be.

Dream big.

Reach for the stars.

Who says to their 6 year old “You don’t really have any chance of playing in the big leagues or being president.”

We encourage the dreaming, the possibility, the ambition, the drive.

For Moses, growing up as a prince of Egypt meant no personal ambition was out of reach.

Acts 7:22 “22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.”

No civilization possessed the knowledge and possibility of Egypt.

Moses would have been trained to build and govern kingdoms.

He would have been skilled in culture, religion, politics, medicine, law, mathematics, architecture and war.

He would have been trained physically, disciplining himself in fitness, horsemanship, archery, and hand-to-hand combat.

There really was no limit to what he could achieve.

Yet he became intrigued by the plight of the Hebrew slaves.

Somehow Moses came to identify with his humble roots.

Exodus 2:11 “11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.”

You can imagine him behind some glistening chariot of white horses.

Looking down at the lines of tattered Hebrew slaves stomping out the mud bricks.

Beneath the robes and riches he was one of them.

His blood was the same as theirs.

He knew.

He felt something he hadn’t before, a new ambition.

Just then he saw an Egyptian beating one of these Hebrew men, one of his brethren.

Moses rushed to the scene and killed the Egyptian.

Was this a moment of overwhelming passion?

Was it a momentary guilt for his privileged position?

Was it a deliberate effort to kick off a rebellion?

Acts 7:25 “25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.”

It was ambition that motivated Moses to act.

The idea that salvation would come by his hand.

We all feel the pull of ambition.

Shakespeare said, “Who doth ambition shun?”

We all struggle with what to make of it, and what to do with it.

It seems to be this ambition that moved Moses to murder.

The next day, Moses saw two Hebrews fighting and again he intervened.

Exodus 2:14 “14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.”

Moses’ secret was out, but their rejection of his effort was a much deeper blow.

There would be penalties for murdering an Egyptian.

Moses felt more than the fear of repercussion.

He had taken a big first step toward his life’s greatest ambition and not only had he failed, but he was mocked by those he sought to save.

Humiliated and exposed, Moses fled into obscurity.

The Perplexing Experience of Ambition

The next period of Moses’ life was marked by his own wilderness.

As a shepherd working for his father-in-law, 40 years passed with nothing apparently worth recording.

At the end of this time, Moses had his famous encounter with a burning bush.

Over this time, the Hebrews cause must have faded from his mind.

What had become of his ambition?

Exodus 3:7-10 “7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.”

Was this not exactly what Moses had envisioned 40 years earlier?

had this not been the very ambition for which he had sacrificed his position of privilege?

After many questions and doubts, Moses finally admitted his reluctance to obey.

Exodus 4:13 “13 And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.”

Where was the ambition?

Anyone who has honestly wrestled with purpose and their own failures understands that these two dispositions of Moses are not a conflict but the lived experience of our ambitions.

Ambition has a way of leading us to two extremes.

At times it can be so burning hot that it consumes all of us.

That same ambition can become our accuser and mock us into disbelief.

Ambitions confidence and disillusionment are far more connected than we often admit.

Ambition makes everything seem possible, yet always just out of reach.

It’s exhausting and demoralizing.

Victor Hugo warns in Les Miserables that “Ambition disguises itself under the name of a calling, possibly in good faith, and deceiving itself under the name of calling, possibly in good faith, and deceiving itself in sanctimonious confusion.

Ambition aids men in good pursuits.

To handle it well one must become its master.

You must acquire the skills necessary to recognize its destructive tendencies.

If not, you risk being lost in its maze of twisting emotions and desires.

The biggest risk of ambition is its tendency to confuse our place with gods.

One philosopher said, The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing. But because he wants to do it in his own strength, he is fighting, not with man, but with God.

God Hates Visionary Dreaming

In 1930, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was able to travel to the US for a conference in NYC.

Many at the conference tried to convince Bonhoeffer to stay in the US where he was safe.

Bonhoeffer felt a deep conviction to return.

By this time, Hitler had already begun pressuring German churches to comply and ally with his socialist party.

Bonhoeffer would be a voice of opposition.

He hoped to be a part of rebuilding Germany after Hitler’s inevitable defeat.

He led an underground seminary until he was discovered and arrested for his part in a plot to assassinate Hitler.

On April 9, 1945 Bonhoeffer was killed by order given by Hitler personally.

Just 2 weeks later, his prison was liberated by allied troops.

Just 3 weeks later Berlin fell to the Soviets.

Bonhoeffer was led naked into the prison courtyard and hanged.

He died having never seen Hitler’s final defeat.

Had it all been enough for Bonhoeffer?

What if he had stayed in the US?

What if the execution had been delayed by just a few days?

A doctor present in the prison later recounted his observation of Bonhoeffer’s death.

"The prisoners ... were taken from their cells, and the verdicts of the court martial read out to them. Through the half-open door in one room of the huts, I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer, before taking off his prison garb, kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a prayer and then climbed the steps to the gallows, brave and com-posed. His death ensued in a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I have worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God."

In his book Life Together, Bonhoeffer wrote, “God hates visionary dreaming.”

He explained that “it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. When things don’t go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he first becomes an accuser of the brethren, then of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.”

Too often, our ambitions for a better life cost us the one we already possess.

Our vision becomes the standard by which we judge ourselves, others, and God.

We become God’s judge, measuring Him against the fulfillment of our own expectations.

When we fail, we look for someone to blame: the people who hold us back or get in our way, our own lack of discipline or talent, and even our Creator.

An ambition we cannot forfeit is always a sign of unbelief.

Shakespeare said, “I charge thee, fling away ambition. By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, the image of his maker, hope to win by it.”

Another author said, “Our culture encourages and rewards ambition without qualification. We are surrounded by a way of life in which betterment is understood as expansion, as acquisition, as fame....there is nothing recent about this temptation…what is new about it is the general admiration and approval it receives.

Ambition as Disbelief

Moses did eventually comply with God’s call to lead Israel.

He faced a constant temptation to mistake his own work for God’s.

If you find handling your own ambition perplexing, don’t worry: Moses also struggled to sort it out.

Israel proved to be a reluctant and complaining people.

Never enough water.

Never enough food.

Never the right kind of food.

Mostly they questioned Moses.

Moses’ own family undermined him.

There were rebellions that had to be put down.

While Moses was on Sinai receiving the law, the people below were ready to abandon him and follow their own image of God.

God was furious and determined to destroy Israel.

Moses interceded.

Exodus 32:30 “30 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.”

One man atoning for the sins of the people?

Exodus 32:31-32 “31 And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. 32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.”

Moses offers his life as an atonement for the people’s sins.

What commitment!

What Resolve!

God seemed indifferent to Moses’ offer.

Exodus 32:33-34 “33 And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. 34 Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.”

A similar event took place in the book of Numbers.

Again the people were ready to abandon Moses and God.

Numbers 11:5-6 “5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: 6 But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.”

Again the Lord was angry with the people.

Again Moses went before the Lord, but notice the difference.

Numbers 11:11-15 “11 And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? 12 Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? 13 Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. 14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. 15 And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.”

Again Moses offers his life, but this time not as a sacrifice.

He offers his life so he can be done with these people.

Again, God gives little attention to Moses’ words.

He sent Moses back to his work, and he gave the people quail to eat.

Still, the people complained.

This time it was lack of water.

God instructed Moses to speak to a rock which would produce water for the people.

Moses had had enough, though.

He gathered the people before the rock and began to chastise them.

Numbers 20:10-11 “10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? 11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.”

It’s hard not to feel for Moses.

Where once he would have died for them, now his disdain is palpable.

Before, he petitioned God on their behalf, now he speaks as if he is God’s equal.

“Must WE fetch you water out of this rock?”

Moses’ ambitions had led him to places of great achievement and to places of sorrow and self-pity.

Finally it led him to disobedience and pride.

He mistook his own anger and frustrations for Gods.

HE was once reluctant to speak for God; now he instinctively fills in what he would have God say.

It was an outburst of frustration and disappointment.

They had not been the people he expected them to be.

It had not gone as he imagined it would go.

He had lost his ability to separate himself from God.

He could not distinguish between his work and God’s.

His ambition from his actual calling.

Ambition often mistakes what we would have God for what he is actually doing.

Before, God had mostly ignored Moses’ self-indulgence, here God spake directly to it.

Numbers 20:12 “12 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”

Moses had not trusted God to be God.

His ambition got in the way.

Is it possible that your ambition has done the same thing to you?

Ambition can keep you from trusting God.

Ambition can turn your relationship with God into a demanding one.

Unfulfilled, your ambitions leave you vulnerable to the same bitterness and charges of unfairness.

A Check on Ambition

God offered a way of checking the instinct of ambition.

Early in leading Israel, Moses had sought help from God.

Exodus 33:14 “14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”

A leading presence is great, but Moses hadn’t asked about rest.

Ambition stirs us to action, who is thinking about rest?

What does rest have to do with reaching the promised land?

They could rest when they arrived.

When Moses was on Mt. Nebo, he finally found that rest.

It was a forced rest.

He would leave this earth with his job unfinished.

God would prove that he was capable of giving the people the promised land without Moses’ aid.

To be human, a mature human, at least, is to recognize our limits.

Life is an exercise of coming to grips with the limits placed upon us.

So much is left undone.

There is work we do not complete.

There are callings which never arrive.

Promises we take with us to the next life.

We are trained to embrace this not by the burdens we carry, but the ones we can lay down.

God’s people have always been taught to check their ambition through the self-imposed practice of rest.

In the OT this was called Sabbath.

Sabbath is often misunderstood and poorly practiced.

We think it’s a day of rest so we can work harder the other 6 days.

Sabbath was never meant to be a strategy for you to get more done.

Sabbath is meant to be an intentional check on what you can accomplish

Sabbath is meant to teach us to do less not more.

If we don’t have a sabbath, we will hardly stop to recognize what God is already doing.

Leo Tolstoy said, “If then I were asked for the most important advice i could give, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.

Without a sabbath we don’t just risk not recognizing God’s work, we also risk deceiving ourselves into thinking we are the ones doing things for him.

We need to stop.

We need to check ourselves.

Stop being desperate for promotion.

Stop with the goal setting.

Stop with the to-do lists.

Stop trying to make things happen.

Stop trying to be someone.

Stop worrying about your career.

Stop dreaming and wishing.

For just one day a week, in the name of God, stop.

Look around.

The world didn’t fall over when you stopped.

There is more that god has been doing that what you have been doing.

Stopping is hard at first.

You must intentionally do less than you are capable of doing.

Teach yourself to be suspicious of what you can’t let go of.

Teach yourself to suspect that which is most difficult to lay down.

C.S. Lewis said...

Don’t be too easily convinced that god really wants you to do all sorts of work you needn’t do…there can be intemperance in work just as in drink. What feels like zeal may be only fidgets or even the flattering of one’s self importance.

Not Even for a Gold Medal

Eric Liddell

1924 Olympics

1943 Japanese internment camp

Make this Your Ambition

Maybe one of the most neglected commands in scripture is Paul’s words to the Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 “11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; 12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.”

Christianity is not meant to prevent you from achievement.

It is offering you a better ambition that frees you from the desperation of proving yourself and earning your value.

To do truly great things, you have to become a person content with achieving only small things.

When you are free from desperate forms of self-ambition, you are capable of achieving things that obsession, anxiety, and desperation never can.

Your greatest potential is in your contentment, your ability to trust and receive from Christ.

Though we don’t know for sure, most agree that the mount where Jesus was transfigured was Mt. Tabor near the Sea of Galilee.

Do you remember who the disciples saw standing on that mountain speaking to Jesus?

Elijah and MOSES!

He was standing in the middle of the Promised Land!!!

Checking your ambition doesn’t cost you anything.

It allows you to receive things you could have never achieved by your own efforts.

Bonhoeffer said...

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and cancelling our plans…it is a strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they allow nothing to disturb them. They think they are doing God a service in this, but actually they are disdaining God’s crooked yet straight path.”

Check your ambition.

Stop.

Rest.

The right path is not always the shortest or the straightest.

For those willing to go where He is leading, a promised land always awaits.