Do Not Worry – 6

Just touching on Mothers on this special day, here is an excerpt from Family Vocation: God’s Calling in Marriages, Parenting, and Childhood: Eating for two, changing diapers, calming tantrums, tending wounds physical and otherwise, ushering children through all of the challenges of growing up, all fall within God’s vocation of motherhood. In a wide variety of ways, we see mothers, also in Scripture, doing their best to provide for, protect, and educate their children. As children grow, mothers are bound to shift from stage to stage, parenting according to the changing needs and scenarios of the children. Complicating the tasks is that every child, like every snowflake, is unique. Some children have special needs. Others need varying amounts of company and guidance. Mothers respond according to their own abilities and opportunities and then grow as mothers themselves. For all of the stress and panic and worries of child raising, mothers can rest assured that the burden is not theirs alone. They can have the confidence that God is working through them, even despite themselves sometimes, to form their children for his glory.

Got Questions Ministries: The Bible never states that every woman should be a mother. However, it does say that those whom the Lord blesses to be mothers should take the responsibility seriously. Mothers have a unique and crucial role in the lives of their children. Motherhood is not a chore or unpleasant task. Just as a mother bears a child during pregnancy, and just as a mother feeds and cares for a child during infancy, mothers also play an ongoing role in the lives of their children, whether they are adolescents, teenagers, young adults, or even adults with children of their own. While the role of motherhood must change and develop, the love, care, nurture, and encouragement a mother gives should never cease.

This message on Do Not Worry can be a help to mothers as well as the rest of us.

Matthew 6:32 (NIV84)

32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

Worry = μεριμνάω merimnaō = to be apprehensive, have anxiety, be anxious, be (unduly) concerned.

There are those who assume that they can secure their own futures for their temporary livelihood while denying God’s care and love.

Pagans = ἔθνος ethnos = Gentiles: a person from an ethnic group or nation not allied with and trusting in the God of Israel (and later in Jesus as the Messiah); usually used collectively.

Those who do not belong to the Jewish or Christian faith; heathen, pagans.

Those who operate outside of God’s values.

From a Christian viewpoint, pagans are generally characterized as those who are caught up in any religious ceremony, act, or practice that is not distinctly Christian.

Run after = ἐπιζητέω epizēteō = Search for, seek after, desire to know; wish for, demand, desire.

Jesus was teaching us that it is not the Father’s will for Christians to be absorbed with worry about the future and how their material needs will be met.

This does not mean that we are to ignore our responsibilities as contributing members of society. Christians are to be responsible and are to work for a living.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-10 (NIV84)

6In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.

7For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you,

8nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.

9We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow.

10For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."

Gene Getz: If we are continually anxious, we have probably not arrived at that important balance between trusting God to meet our needs and, at the same time, doing our part to be responsible Christians in the world.

1 Peter 4:1–6 (NIV84)

1Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.

2As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.

3For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.

4They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you.

5But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

6For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.

Pagans not only run after food, drink and clothes, they run after all those things that satisfy the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

1 John 2:15–17 (NKJV)

15Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

17And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Ecclesiastes 2:17–26 (NIV84)

17So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

18I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.

19And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.

20So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.

21For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.

22What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?

23All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

24A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,

25for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

26To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

V. 20, Despair = יָאַשׁ yāʾaš = to cause or allow to abandon hope or lose heart. Stems: piel.

Yāʾaš communicates despondency and hopelessness to the point of taking desperate action to escape it. Desperation over what would become of his kingdom plagued the king incessantly.

The stem expresses a specific meaning or nuance to a verb.

The Hebrew word יָאַשׁ yāʾaš (despair) has two stems: niphal and piel.

Niphal functions as a passive form (like “to be killed”). If this stem were used, despair would be presented as something happening to Solomon.

Piel makes Solomon the active agent imposing despair on himself.

In this case and context, the piel stem is used. Solomon is making his heart despair; he is compelling his own heart into a state of hopelessness regarding his labor.

Solomon is deliberately yielding to despair.

V. 22, toil = עָמָל ʿāmāl = work, labor, trouble, misery

hard, difficult, or painful work that is often manual labor.

trouble; acquisition; care, anxiety; need; harm.

anxious striving = רַעְיוֹן raʿyôn = striving, chasing.

An effortful attempt to attain a goal.

Solomon’s despair stemmed from contemplating what would become of his vast accumulated wealth and accomplishments after his death.

He recognized that everything he had built—his houses, lands, livestock, public works, orchards, and kingdom—would pass to someone else, potentially a fool or scoundrel.

Solomon recognized that those who do not work for something do not value what they have like those who do.

Psalm 103:1–5 (NIV84)

1Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

2Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—

3who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

4who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,

5who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Instead of fixating on what one could lose and what others would inherit, this Psalm redirects our attention to God’s active and ongoing provision and care.

The Lord satisfies our desires with good things.

Psalm 42:5 (NASB95)

5Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.

Repeated in Ps 42:11 and 43:5, written by the sons of Korah.

The sons of Korah were descendants of the Levite Korah who had rebelled against Moses and Aaron and perished along with their followers (Numbers 16).

However, Korah’s sons did not participate in the insurrection and therefore did not share their father’s punishment.

Korah’s descendants became prominent in Israel’s worship. Their descendants were loyal to David, accepting him as the elected and anointed king of Israel and joining him in Ziglag when he was being pursued by King Saul.

The Korahites were Kohathites, part of a clan that had responsibility for carrying the holy items of the tabernacle during the wilderness wandering period. Later, they were responsible for gatekeeping and baking functions in the temple and were also singers.

The Levites were separated far from Jerusalem and the temple—likely in exile or displacement—feeling deep spiritual distress and being mocked by others who say, “Where is your God?” Yet they deliberately chose to hope in God despite both external opposition and inner discouragement.

They put their hope in God and thanked Him for the help of His presence.

Presence = פָּנֶה pāneh = the presence or proximity of someone understood in terms of the face; with the implication of being before or in front of them; presence, face.

To be in God’s presence and to have God’s face “turned toward” you are closely related ideas, both suggesting divine attention and relational favor directed toward the person.

When God is present, you have His attention.

God is in a special way attentively present to those who call upon His name, intercede for others, who adore God, who petition, who pray earnestly for forgiveness.

When God’s face is turned toward someone, it signals active engagement rather than mere existence in the same space.

Psalm 16:1–11 (NIV84)

1Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.

2I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”

3As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

4The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.

5Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.

6The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

7I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

8I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Psalm 16:8 (HCSB)

8 I keep the LORD in mind always. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

9Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,

10because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

11You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Psalm 16:11 (ESV)

11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Andrew MacLaren (1826-1910): God is ever by our sides, but we may be very far away from Him, ‘though He be not far off from every one of us,’ and if we are to have Him blazing, clear and unobscured above and beyond all the mists and hubbub of earth, we shall need continual effort in order to keep Him in our sight.

You cannot do that, if you let the world, and wealth, and business, and anxieties, and ambitions, and cares, and sorrows, and duties, and family responsibilities, jostle and hustle Him out of your minds and hearts.

Psalm 10:1–11 (NIV84)

1Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises.

3He boasts of the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.

4In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.

11He says to himself, “God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees.”

The lives of the wicked is an example of a life lived without the presence of God.

Unlike the godly who keep the Lord in mind always (Psalm 16:8, hcsb).

For the wicked, God truly covers His face in that He is not paying divine attention and relational favor toward that wicked person, who had no room in his thoughts for God.

Exodus 33:12–16 (NIV84)

12Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’

13If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

14The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

15Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

16How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

It was God’s presence among his people that set Israel apart from all the other nations on earth.

After the golden calf incident, shortly after God established His covenant on Mount Sinai, which was based on the Ten Commandments, God told his people that he would send an angel with them, but that he would no longer go with them on their journey to Canaan (Exodus 33:2–3). (Also see Isaiah 59:1-2.)

Moses begged the Lord to return to their midst, saying, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.… What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

God originally told Moses that His (God’s) presence would only go with Moses. Moses pleaded with God to include all the Israelites, in spite of their ungodly ways.

The distinguishing mark of the people of God is God’s presence.

Matthew 18:20 (NIV84)

20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

This verse is often misinterpreted to say that wherever two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, He will be there with them. Jesus’ presence is not limited to a minimum of two believers; He will be with one.

The promises here specifically concern the unity of the church in rendering a decision about a sinning member.

Jewish people considered God alone omnipresent; Jesus speaks of himself here as the divine presence.

Hebrews 13:5–6 (NIV84)

5Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

6So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

The antidote to loving money is contentment and trust in God.

Charles Spurgeon: “I will never leave you or abandon you.” Depend on it: People will not forsake us while they can get anything out of us. But when a man becomes so laid aside by accident or is so weak he cannot take his place in the great march of life, few are those who will stop to care for and attend to him. How often are the incurable forsaken. But the Lord has said, “I will never leave you or abandon you.” If we should get so old that we cannot serve the church of God, if we should become so sick that we are only a burden to those of our house who have to nurse us, yet the eternal love of Jehovah will not diminish. However low our condition, however weak we are, his strength shall be revealed in the everlasting arms that will not permit us to sink into disaster or our soul into hell. Others may forsake us for different reasons, but he will never. If the Lord stands at our right hand, we can well afford to see the backs of all our friends, for we shall find friends enough in the triune God whom we delight to serve. Selah.

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