Purpose Edition

For three things the earth is perturbed, Yes, for four it cannot bear up: For a servant when he reigns, A fool when he is filled with food, A hateful woman when she is married, And a maidservant who succeeds her mistress. (1)

Feeling anxiety or concern; unsettled.

Perturbed means unsettled or anxious. Perturbed means to take something off its normal path, expected path. This describes the reaction, response and emotion that comes to the surface when the servant (1) becomes a Queen. Contrary to the expectation of what appears to be more fitting and appropriate. Contrary to what is normal. Well it is a natural emotional response in this scenario. However, did you know that God also purposefully, makes people to have this feeling. This reaction. This disturbance. To be perturbed.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are (2)

The wise, strong and mighty are perturbed when the foolish and weak are called. So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” (3) That even without being qualified, skilled or with a decent upbringing are the perfect qualifications for those whom the Lord chooses to show Himself strong (4). This happened to Jacob who was not as skilled and gifted as his brother Esau. Leah who was despised unlike her beautiful radiant sister Rachel. Even the Lord Jesus the religious leaders of His time was perturbed that anything good could come out of Nazareth (5). After all, this statement describing the perturbation of the earth was announced by a man, inspired by the Spirit of God for a certain context and observation in his time. But upon another context we are able to glance into the perfect law of liberty (6) in order to see from a different angle (7).

For My strength is made perfect in weakness (8).

Yes in the case of Hagar and Sarah it was out of Sarah’s own unbelief that Hagar the servant succeeded her mistress. But yet the God of the despised, the God of the rejected ones who is and is alone worthy of all honour and praise. What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him (9). Yes this God chooses to use the foolish things to perturb those who are wise. The weak things to perturb those who are strong and mighty. In other words to unsettle and make anxious those who are lifted up in their own strength. Those who choose to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil of Self Sufficiency and Pride as it happened in The Garden. Than to have faith and dependence on Him, His word and His guidance as a loving, caring, faithful Father.

In some cases this perturbed disturbance can be a result of human error and in others it is the will of God. In the case of Sarah and Hagar it was an error in the unfaithfulness and unbelief of Sarah upon what God had spoken to her. It was the use of her own strength to get what she was so anxious to have a child for her husband by whatever means. So that a now impregnated Hagar goes around imposing her superiority over her mistress leaving everyone especially Sarah, perturbed.

Yet in the case of Leah a woman also despised yet chosen by God to give birth to the genealogy and make up of the future infrastructure of the people of Isreal with the tribe of Levi and Judah who would have descendants bringing forth the Promised Seed.

Leah’s position was imposed by mistake or even deceit. When her father put her in the place of her sister in the wedding day of Jacob who was to marry Rachel. Yet this deceitful and unjust imposition though leaving poor Jacob perturbed and all those expecting a beautiful Rachel at his side. It came to pass this disturbance too was to fulfil the make up of the plan of Salvation. Through Leah a woman despised and rejected. Yet through her faith, trust and dependency on God would be a pivotal and purposeful perturbance upon the earth. The tribe of Judah (10) where in his conception was the Cup of Salvation for Leah; who stopped giving birth to win the heart of her husband Jacob who despised her but with praise and gratitude decided from that moment on to praise and worship God and make Him alone worthy of her admiration and desire. And let’s not forget the Lord Jesus, the Promised Seed from a poor scanty town of Nazareth. Well, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (11)