“And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness. [Acts 4:29-31 (NLT)]
When writing about praying recklessly brave prayers earlier this week, I wrote of chutzpah and that it can be both good and bad. Bad chutzpah is seen in the man who shouts for help while beating you up, the counterfeiter who pays his lawyer with phony money, the person who calls up tech support about a problem in pirated software, and the embezzler who opens an account in the bank from which he stole the money! These examples, however, are tame compared to some of the outrageous, destructive, arrogant, and self-seeking behavior we can find in Scripture—what I call unholy chutzpah.
It was Pharaoh’s disregard and arrogance that caused his people to suffer through ten increasingly horrible plagues. Even when it became clear that Jehovah was greater than any of Egypt’s gods, the obstinate man refused to back down. That’s unholy chutzpah! Despite being warned of the consequences, the boastful King Nebuchadnezzar showed unholy chutzpah when he claimed to be solely responsible for Babylon’s greatness. Pompous Belshazzar, Babylon’s last king, showed unholy chutzpah by dishonoring God and drinking from sacred cups stolen from Israel’s temple while toasting Babylon’s gods! The brazen Absalom showed unholy chutzpah by insolently calling himself king when Solomon was chosen, leading a rebellion against his father, and publicly taking David’s concubines for himself! The ultimate example of unholy chutzpah, of course, is found in Satan—the proud angel who overstepped boundaries by thinking he could sit on a throne higher than God’s!
Holy chutzpah, however, advances God’s kingdom on earth and we see several examples of it in Scripture, as well. The midwives who fearlessly refused to kill Israel’s baby boys and courageously lied to Pharaoh showed holy chutzpah. Consider Moses, a man who’d lived apart from the Hebrews for most of his 80 years, and the chutzpah it took to go to the elders of Israel and tell them he was the one who would bring them out of Egypt! David showed chutzpah when the shepherd boy confidently approached Saul and said he’d be the one to fight Goliath! Obadiah, the man in charge of King Ahab’s palace, courageously hid a hundred of God’s prophets from Jezebel’s wrath in two caves and the food and water he supplied them daily probably came from Ahab and Jezebel’s palace. Now that’s real chutzpah!
Think of Mordecai’s chutzpah when he defiantly refused to bow down to Haman and Esther’s when she broke the rules and dared to approach King Xerxes. When knowing the punishment for their disobedience, consider the chutzpah of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue and Daniel’s chutzpah when he openly defied the order that prayers were to be offered to King Darius alone! Prophets like Elisha, Jeremiah, Amos, Elijah, Micah, Isaiah and others were ridiculed, rejected, accused, threatened, victimized, and even killed but they continued to boldly serve the Lord with holy chutzpah!
John the Baptist showed holy chutzpah with the courage that publicly rebuked Herod for his incestuous marriage. Peter and John showed holy chutzpah when these ordinary men had the audacity to question the High Council and again when they defied their authority by continuing to speak about Jesus. Within the Roman Empire, it was illegal to preach, observe, or worship a god not endorsed by the Roman senate and yet that’s exactly what Paul and the other apostles did whenever they spoke of Jesus. The early church was on fire with holy chutzpah. Are we?
Proverbs 28:1 tells us, “the righteous are bold as a lion.” A lion isn’t well-mannered, self-conscious, weak, or frightened and neither is holy chutzpah! Committed to God’s purpose and confident in His power, holy chutzpah fears nothing and no one except God! The need for such chutzpah, however, didn’t end with the last page of the Bible. To his fellow Jews, Rabbi Tzvi Freeman says, “To be a good Jew, you need two opposites: A sense of shame that prevents you from acting with chutzpah to do the wrong thing, and a sense of chutzpah that prevents you from being ashamed to do the right thing.” The same holds true for Christians today.
Christians should be the boldest people in the world – not cocky and sure of ourselves, but sure of Him. [A.W. Tozer]
The Israelites had experienced about two years of God’s power and faithfulness the first time they approached Canaan. After walking through the Red Sea on dry land, they saw Pharaoh’s army drown in the same waters. They heard God’s voice and were led through the wilderness by His cloud during the day and fire at night. God’s power turned bitter water sweet, fed them with quail and manna, and led them to victory against the Amalekites. Nevertheless, it seems as if all of that was forgotten when the twelve spies returned from their forty days scouting Canaan.
If I were doing what accountants call a cost-benefit analysis of our living in Florida, the cost side would include venomous snakes, poisonous cane toads, hurricanes, alligators, sink holes, fire ants, and mosquitos along with humidity, allergies, high insurance, and seasonal traffic. On the other hand, the benefits would include never having to shovel snow, scrape sleet from a windshield, or drive on icy roads, along with the enjoyment of beaches, beautiful birds, colorful flowers, ocean breezes, “early-bird” specials, sunshine, no state income tax, and never-ending summer. While not one hundred times better, the pluses outweigh the negatives and make it worthwhile (at least for us)!
When a rich man asked Jesus what he needed to do to have eternal life, the Lord told him to sell everything and give it to the poor. More willing to part with eternal life than his riches, the disappointed man departed. When Jesus explained, ”It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God,” the disciples were astonished. Jewish tradition held that riches were a sign of God’s blessings and favor while poverty and sickness were God’s curse. If a rich man couldn’t get into the kingdom, they wondered who could.
Although our Bibles call Hagar a servant, she had no choice in the matter. Along with sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, and camels, the Egyptian woman probably was given to Abraham as part of the bride-price Pharaoh paid for Sarah in Genesis 12:16. As his property, Hagar couldn’t refuse when Sarah decided to use her servant’s womb and Abraham impregnated her. Once pregnant, the powerless victim of Sarah’s scheme taunted her mistress with her fertility and Sarah retaliated by treating her harshly. Abraham washed his hands of the women’s conflict by telling Sarah the way she treated (or mistreated) the woman was her business, not his! Hagar meant nothing to Abraham; she was little more than a brood mare who served her purpose.
Things went downhill for Israel in the centuries following their arrival in Egypt. Life turned bad when Pharaoh’s once welcome guests became Pharaoh’s oppressed slaves who labored in his fields or made bricks for his building projects. Hearing their cry for relief, God called Moses to lead His children out of captivity. Although He warned Moses that Pharaoh would not let his labor force depart easily, God didn’t tell him that Israel’s life would go from bad to worse before they left Egypt.
