Where Do You Take Your Cues From?

Hello Hump Day readers! A while back I mentioned my love for camels and some of their amazing qualities and intelligence. One attribute they have is “they know better” – try to take them one way that they know is not the right way and you’re likely to land smack on your bottom-side with a camel who has now decided to sit down and stay there until you listen to him-or-her! When your camel gets stubborn, take a cue from it and listen, they know where they are supposed to go and where not to go!

There is an actual true story about “taking your cues” from the wrong places from a Rabbi who had led his congregation in month-long study of the life of Moses. As it ended, he wanted feedback so he asked the people what they had learned about Moses, what they thought of him, did they learn something new about him, etc. One lady blurted out: “Well Rabbi, after all these studies I think I know Moses so well now that I can certainly say he doesn’t even look like Charlton Heston!”

That probably gave a laugh to the congregation, but below the surface is a reality that many of us have bought into and don’t even realize it. It is so easy to let the secular world dictate our views and feelings about so many things, and sadly even about God and the Scriptures.Isaiah spoke to the people about what happens when we take our “cues” from the wrong source (8:20-22 The Message):

When people tell you, “Try out the fortunetellers. Consult the spiritualists. Why not tap into the spirit-world, get in touch with the dead? Tell them NO! We’re going to study the Scriptures.” 

People who try the other ways get nowhere—a dead end! Frustrated and famished, they try one thing after another. When nothing works out, they get angry, cursing first this god and then that one, looking this way and that, up, down, and sideways—and seeing nothing—a blank wall, an empty hole. They end up in the dark with nothing.

Isaiah saw the problem and he didn’t want it to continue. He was so upset with them because even though God had given them his Word concerning their future, they still consulted mediums about what to expect and what to do. You can imagine Isaiah’s angst at this, after all it was the God of Heaven and Earth who delivered them from Egypt and gave them a home in the Promised Land and had graciously revealed His heart and plans – and yet what were they putting their trust in—they took their cues from a psychic!!

Have you ever been in a conversation that turns to “religion” and you hear a thousand different ways about who God is or is not, what God looks like, or God is cruel, mean, and irrelevant, outdated and certainly impractical to modern-day needs?! I’ve actually had person tell me that they think God is deceptive and just wants to play with our minds for fun—how is that for a statement—it left me speechless — but not for long!

We know better, though, don’t we? Have we not experienced the grace of God and been the recipient of God’s love and strength in our lives? Yet, how easy is it to take your cues from something or someone else? We easily fall prey to financial promises, the latest pill that will cure us, new creams or supplements that will keep us young, or the latest political hack promising he or she will solve every problem and make us all great again. To all of that I say “really?” Now who is playing the deceiver?

And that is the crux of the problem. The person that told me God is deceptive has listened all too-well to the voice of the evil one, Satan, who lives with every ugly deceit and deceptive device one could imagine. His deception is so well-veiled it’s like the freight-train we never see coming, until we are trampled down and torn-apart. The devil departs laughing, but he also the missed the cue – but God didn’t! God bent down, picked us up, put us back together and the devil did not get the last laugh, but he will continue to try and try again.

So how do we get better on taking the right cue for living? It’s a simple answer, open the Bible, and turn your attention to the words that are life-giving instead of a hopeless tease that sounds good but is just “too good to be true.” And if you get bold enough, you just might want to say what my grandmother always told me to do when I was tempted or had done something dumb again, “you just sweep that devil off your shoulder and tell him ‘in Jesus name you have to flee!’”—a wise women she was indeed and I cherish her wisdom daily.