My Thoughts, or Yours?

1 Kings 12:26

Jeroboam thought to himself, ‘The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David’.

If there’s one movie that kept us talking for days after watching it, it’s the Leonardo DiCaprio’s Inception. It was about a man with the expertise of extracting an information from someone via dream state. Then came this chaiman from Geisha (haha!), now a client, asking him to implant an information instead. A traumatic  past haunts Jack (from Titanic of course :>) in this pursuit, for it was because of an implanted suicide idea that he lost his confused-with-reality wife. Good thing, Juno was there to walk with him for a closure with Edith Piaf, leading to the successful implant in the scarecrow’s mind, leading to his homecoming with Alfred (from Batman again :>). Oh did I tangle your thoughts?  

Re-reading the closing verses of this chapter, I was caught up with these words, ‘Jeroboam thought to himself’. More translations wrote ‘He said in his heart’.  Uhm,  so was it the mind or the heart? Lexicon explained that the heart is also used very widely for the feelings, the will, even the intellect. Our whole being then. My picture of Jeroboam here is how us girls do self-talk and resolve issues with the mirror. The problem is, the Bible warns us that the heart is deceitful and that its every inclination is evil, which leads us to the obvious conclusion: it will lead us to a God-displeasing act! For Jeroboam, it’s what caused his infamous leading Israel to sin: he carved two golden calves, built shrines, appointed unlawful priests, instituted a festival of his choosing, and went up to the altar to personally make offerings. All birthed from his thoughts, his idea-concepts, his personal preferences.  Did he make inquiries? Yes, but with likeminded peers I guess :<  It was just one seed idea: a replica of Jerusalem worship. He could have first consulted his Scepter-Giver, the God, whom he ought to honor with this project. I’m sure he wasn’t thinking of surprising God.  But because Jeroboam acted independently from God’s thoughts, from His heart, from His will, it’s not surprising He did not grace those detestable high places with His holiness.

What projects are we working on lately? Are those in consultation with God’s word or we just thought it’s a good, big thing to be busy with? Is it for our advancement? To make us wealthier? More comfortable? Ey, nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with cruising unless Niniveh is on the other side. Nothing wrong with preparing great meals for thirteen plus men unless Jesus said it’s better to sit down and listen. We may have been given free will, but unless it submits to the Lordship of Christ, we are in bondage to the enemy. True freedom is when we’re free from sin. It’s in living God’s Word, walking His ways, beating His heart. It’s taking captive our E-V-E-R-Y thought, desires, plans, and our being and make it obedient to Christ.  His thoughts are definitely higher than ours. He sees eternity past and future. He created all and sustains everything.  Isn’t  it but wiser to let Him do the thinking? Unless you have a better idea?  My thoughts exactly (*wink :>)

David as DiCaprio

2 Samuel 11:14,15

“In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, ‘Put Uriah in the front line where fighting is the fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”

In the 2010 movie Inception, the wife of Di Caprio’s character Dom Cobb, jumped out of a window because she thought the reality she lives in was still a limbo and only death again can break her free. Since it was Dom who performed inception on her, he feels he’s the cause of her death. Since then, she manifested in all his deliberate dreams, a threat disrupting his missions, the guilt deep down his level five subconscious. Face to face with his dark shadow was a choice, either deceive himself to a happy ending, or forgive himself and live the painful truth. I wish the wobbles of his totem meant it fell over after the black screen. Otherwise, we can expect Inception 2.

David was himself in a multilayered state here. His one-night-stand with Bathsheba created a series of schemes that brought him deep down with his deceits. The first layer was Uriah’s pull out. It was a lame script for David to ask this guy how the soldiers were. Lamer to send a gift after him. No wonder Uriah did not buy his urging to go home. The second layer was a drinking session with Uriah. David was here the chemist concocting a sedative to stabilize the situation. Like many people, he thought alcohol could make people forget thus solving their problems. What David failed to remember was that it he who did the implant to his soldiers to keep themselves from women in time of war. The third level was desperate. Joab was sure wide eyed in disbelief receiving a note, handed by Uriah himself, for a sabotage. He who kept his hands from slaying the guilty Saul was now giving an order for the murder of one innocent, offended man. His totem was spinning at the end, and he doesn’t even care. Israel’s dream king was living a nightmare.

The dreamers in Inception have a system of ‘kicks’ for them to wake up to reality. God did provide kicks for David to surface back. He gave Uriah the code of war script to remind David of his responsibility, and twice did He cause Bathsheba’s husband to sleep at the palace entrance to refer that his army are camped in tents. God will not give up on us even at our darkest nights. His faithfulness is committed to show us the way back.  Our guilt may lead us further down but God is still there to offer us a choice: a  happy-ending-dream-state lie, or His forgiveness amidst the painful truth. I wish you'll choose to make your totem fall over after that black screen. Post-credits scene will surely show God running to welcome you home. Part 2 would be your story anew. Time to wake up now :>