I'm gonna let you pass And I'll go last Then time will tell just who has fell And who's been left behind When you go your way and I go mine.
- Bob Dylan
Dylan was an avid Bible reader, Pastor Josh told us yesterday. Much of his imagery comes from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel.
God is often described as our father, or as a king; but through the prophet Ezekiel, God cast himself as a spouse. Israel was portrayed as adulterous as the people turned from God to worship the idols of foreign lands (Ezekiel 16).
The children of Israel had been lured in by foreign powers. Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia all appeared to be strongholds that could provide more safety and security than God himself. They had forgotten their first love.
God called this worse than promiscuous. In his pain and anger, he called it prostitution.
They had come so far from the example David had set for them five centuries earlier when he wrote Psalm 27. He was fleeing for his life from King Saul at the time. He could have fled to a neighboring country - found a stronghold away from his people - and let his fear justify turning his back on God's plan to make him king of Israel.
Instead, David wrote:
The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid? (verse 1)
Though a king mad with jealousy and rage pursed him like a ravenous creature, David believed that in the Lord he had the most secure of strongholds.
He acknowledged that his fear, his present crisis, was not the most important thing in his life. What he desired most was not a safer physical place. He desired to be with God.
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. (verse 4)
In "Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine)," Bob Dylan was writing from the perspective of someone like God in the time of Ezekiel. The way of the promiscuous lover who doesn't realize how safe she is with him, who doesn't know a good thing when they see it, is not going to be his way. Ultimately, he has to just let her go.
David is like the lover that gets it. He was saying, Even in the most stressful of circumstances, even when I am most tempted to give in to fear, I know I am safer with you than anywhere else.
YOU CAN HAVE PEACE NOW, IN THE MIDST OF CRISIS
David modeled seeking peace in the midst of crisis and finding it right where he was. He chose to stand with God.
It was when the children of Israel remembered that they were safest with God that they were saved from the fruits of foreign rule: destruction, exile and genocide.
It was because the disciples of Christ understood they were safest with Jesus, even when he was hated by the religious leaders, that they were most at peace.
And it is when we understand that our security comes not from circumstances, but from the Holy Spirit, that we may have peace as well.
Meanwhile, the fearful things that chase us down and threaten to devour us are losing steam. They will grow weary of pursuing us. They will trip over their own feet.
"That's a promise the Bible makes," Josh said.
Saul fell on his sword and David became king. He lived to see new threats that would come and go. Time defeated and reorganized the world's powers over and over. While always pursued by enemies, the Jewish people have survived every threat.
WE HAVE A CHOICE TO MAKE
God will always go his way. But if we prefer, we can choose to go our own way to try to escape fear.
We can flee from those who love us to pursue relationships with people who don't; we can look for idols like money or sex or drugs to make us feel safe; we can hunker down and shut out the world around us. That option is always available to us.
If we go with God, however - even if it means finding ourselves in the most fearful of crises - David promises we will not regret it.
I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (verses 13-14)
May believing this be your peace today. Amen.