Guidance We Already Know
by Jared Johnson
Better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.
~Josh Billings
Josh Billings was a 19th-century speaker, writer and humorist (think Mark Twain but less well-known today).
What do you and I know that “just ain’t so?”
“Cleanliness is next to godliness” might be one of them. “God helps those who help themselves” would definitely need to make our list; versions of that have been debated and fought over since even before Job’s three friends chastised him needlessly. “Just this once won’t hurt anything” isn’t a known and quoted phrase like those other two but we certainly tell ourselves something like it often enough.
Before doing some obligatory reading to prepare, guidance was the spiritual discipline about which I knew least. I assumed it meant asking other people for input and guidance, a practice at which I am derelict. Well, that was something I knew that just ain’t so!
Confession (and we’ll get to that later this year!): I have never read Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. Maybe someday I’ll be a real Christian. I went looking for online writing he did about guidance, rather than his whole book chapter, and found a short piece by him on Renovare’s site. There, Foster defined guidance in his opening sentence as “learning to live under God’s theocratic rule.” Though Foster’s larger book places guidance under a “corporate” category, his definition of it doesn’t require input from other people, though it can incorporate others’ input quite readily. But there it is already: I “knew” what just ain’t so.
“I’m not sure that’ll be enough,” said all of us, every day, about nearly everything. I’m 45 and getting anxious about retirement. With economic / financial conditions what they are, I’m straight worried about our financial situation in 10-20 years. I worry about money, but Jesus straight told me not to worry! “I’m not sure that’s enough” could be how we respond to a bank account, or to a plate of food put in front of us at a restaurant. “That’s not enough” is often something you and I know in our bones. And yet...
That’s why I tell you not to worry about everyday life – whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? (Matt 6.25-27, NLT)
I know I won’t have enough for retirement ... but what else do I know that just ain’t so?
My nagging sense of “not enough” is a heuristic; a method or procedure for filtering feedback used in learning or problem-solving (in this case, “problem-solving” is just life). We all use “autopilot” heuristics hundreds of times every day, and they're also referred to as “biases.” Some other heuristics/biases are conservatism bias (I seek feedback that reinforces my existing beliefs), and a “need-to-understand" bias (meaning is imparted to occurrences which, in reality, have no meaning).
Our heuristics often create and then reinforce our sacred cows. We know things through our filters/biases, but how much of our heuristic filters tell us stuff that just ain’t so?
Our good and guiding Father anticipated this struggle of ours. Here are 5 times in Scripture either God or His man told people “You already know this,” more or less. Guidance can be found from fellow believers, it comes from God’s Holy Spirit whispering to our souls, but those two sources must be laid alongside a third. Guidance is also to be found “period-complete-end-of-discussion" in God’s revealed Word. And that I can do.
Micah
O my people, what have I done to you? What have I done to make you tired of me? Answer me! ... No, o people, [Yahweh] has told you what’s good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what’s right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
(Micah 6.3 and 8, NLT)We often remember that God confronted Job very sharply. I think Micah 6.3 is even sharper. Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah, ministering during the reigns of Hezekiah, Jotham and Ahaz (Micah 1.1; Isaiah 1.1 mentions these same 3 kings plus Uzziah). The Hebrew people had hundreds of years of experience with God before this moment. God said His people already knew what He expected; He “has told you what’s good...” After centuries with Moses’ Covenant and generations with their other writings, they had so much of God’s established testimony to guide them.
Joshua
Soon I'll die, going the way of everything on earth. Deep in your hearts you know that every promise of [Yahweh] your God has come true. Not a single one has failed!
(Josh 23.14, NLT)Why do we have to be overtly, verbally reminded of what’s apparently obviously unmistakably hovering right in front of our noses? Human nature, sinful nature, idolat ... WHATEVER! Every generation needs a reminder just like this: stating what’s obvious but what 99% of people are simply unwilling to say. This reminds me of a phrase that’s popularized on social media in the last few years: “he just said the quiet part out loud.” That is precisely what Josh did in his farewell speech. God showed up to get intimately involved in His people’s lives in Exodus 3 (“So I have come down to rescue [the people of Israel],” verse 8) and has been showing off ever since. Decades after Egypt suffered its 10 plagues, Josh told his hearers “y’all heard God make promises, saw Him fulfill them, and now you best be obeying Him.” They all knew it – past-tense. Whether they’d seen Korah’s rebellion and Jericho’s walls fall, whether they’d seen battles inexplicably won just a valley or two over from where Josh was speaking, the people knew God had shown off. They knew He had given them good promises. They knew it, watching those promises play out with their own eyes, and Josh was admonishing, guiding, them to live according to how God had already guided them, proving Himself through miracle after miracle.
Hebrews
Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. Now in these final days, he’s spoken to us through his Son. ...
(Heb 1.1-2, NLT)With 2,000 years+ of hindsight’s benefit, we have ample testimony about what God expects of us. He spoke to and through Abraham, Moses, various judges, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Malachi, Peter, Matthew, Paul, etcetera and etcetera and so on and likewise. While I’m 100% convinced Hebrews’ author didn’t mean this opening sentence in a “sigh; for crying out loud, come on people” tone, it is a reminder of just how vast, varied and immanently applicable to our daily lives God’s guidance has already been and will continue to be. His Word is the all-sufficient rule for living a life of faith.
Jesus
...Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. ...
(Luke 18.19-20, NLT)When a religious leader (Luke 18.18) with money (Mark 10.22) who was "young” (Matt 19.22) asked Jesus about how to have eternal life, Jesus answered “You know the commandments!” Yes, indeed, there’s an additional instruction we/he need(ed) to hear from Jesus about idolatry, but please don’t skip over the fact Jesus pointed that “rich young ruler” right back to what he already knew God had said! Our good Father has been guiding us with His Words for millennia.
Jesus, again
One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?” The man answered, “You must love [Yahweh] your God with all your heart, all your soul...”
(Luke 10.25-27, NLT)Again, here, Jesus pointed His questioner right back to what God already told us in His Word.
Yes, guidance can mean we solicit input from fellow believers. Yes, guidance can mean listening for Holy Spirit to nudge us one way or another. But we have an inexhaustible guide in Holy Scripture. God’s own Spirit will never contradict what He’s already said through His written Word. And if a fellow believer gives us advice that contradicts biblical truth (a’la “follow your heart and marry that non-believer") then we need to run, not walk, out of that conversation.
There might be no better guide for us than a conversation with a trusted, Jesus-following friend in which we soak our conversation in Scripture. Reference it. Quote it. Paraphrase it. Easter-egg it. Bandy it about. And live it.
Against all the myriad things I know that just ain’t so, I trust God’s perfect Word to stop, steady, and steer me true.
