I recently watched a childhood favorite with two of my grandsons, The Wizard of Oz. In it, Dorothy and her newfound friends progressed to the end of the yellow brick road where they entered the bejeweled capital, the Emerald City. Once inside, they were greeted with gleeful songs and sparkling smiles because, after all, it was home to the “wonderful wizard.”
You know the story. Amid the smoke, fire and clamorous threats, Toto, the family dog, exposed the fraudulent wizard. With tears in her eyes Dorothy confronted the charlatan, saying, “You’re a very bad man.” To which the “wizard” ruefully replied, “Oh no my dear, I’m a very good man, I’m just a very bad wizard.”
Sadly, we all have some wizard in us. We misrepresent ourselves and when exposed, excuse our motives. Making matters worse, we encourage it in others when we judge by what’s on the outside instead of examining the heart.
A prominent biblical example is the selection of Saul as king. In addition to having wealthy parents, it is reported that there was “not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he” (1 Sam. 9:1-2). What’s more, he was taller than everyone else in the land. Tall, rich and handsome—that must be God’s guy! (Of course, he was anything but.)
Even the prophet Samuel was distracted by outward appearance. When he came to the family of Jesse to find which of his children would be the next king “he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.’ But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:6-7).
In Proverbs 20:10 we’re told that “unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD,” yet that’s what we do when our appraisals are externally focused. The marketing industry knows it’s in our DNA because they use celebrities to sell cars, models to sell perfume and athletes to sell shoes. We use outward appearances to judge ourselves as well. We’re inwardly assured when others don’t know what we’re really thinking. We tell ourselves, “I’m OK. I’ve kept my hate/anger/lust for another to myself. No one else knows how I really feel.”
This is precisely what the Lord warns against in James 1:14-15 when it describes sin beginning by being “enticed by [one’s] own desire.” Unchecked, it brings forth death. Likewise, Colossians 1:21 connects those ultimately “doing evil deeds” with those “alienated and hostile in mind” to God. An accurate spiritual health checkup starts by evaluating where your mind is.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom. 8:7–8)
If, inwardly, you are not actively submitting to God’s perfect law, you cannot please Him. Regardless of how perfect things may appear, your internal rebellion against what He’s commanded makes you incapable of living righteously. Creating a façade of being a “good person” while privately excusing your selfish intentions is in direct conflict with God.
This is the reason that David’s response to being confronted by his sin was to cry out, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10). When it says, “Seek first the kingdom of God,” it is a mandate to pursue the Lord inwardly. Obeying God’s commands is the result of first loving Him. In your prayer time pay close attention to the man behind the curtain. Cut through the external smoke, fire and clamorous threats of this life and ask God to create in you a clean heart and to renew a right spirit.
And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” (Mt. 22:37–38)