"Contentment in Obscurity"

 All around us, new houses are popping up. Here is what we watched from our front window last week--a crane setting up the parts of a modular home just down the road.

When I take a walk, I don't enjoy feeling like everyone is looking at me. I'm more at home on a path or driveway back in PA back in the fields and woods. But guess what? I live where I live, and so when I take a walk, I just live with the possible stares of people in the houses around.

I have been reading and studying Matthew Henry's comments on Jeremiah 35, the story of the Rechabites, descendants of Moses' father-in-law. Henry describes them as a "family that kept distinct by themselves," accustomed "to hard fare and hard lodging. They were commanded by their father Jonadab, a man known for wisdom and piety (2 Kings 10:15-16) to refrain from drinking wine 

and to live in tents.

"Tents were mean dwellings," to "teach them to be humble;

...cold dwellings,so that this would teach them to be hardy and not to indulge the body;

and "movable dwellings, so that this would teach them not to think of ...taking root anywhere in this world. They must thus accustom themselves to hardness."

 "Humility and contentment in obscurity are often the best policy and men's surest protection," Henry writes.
"Jonadab saw a general corruption of manners; the drunkards of Ephraim abounded, and he was afraid lest his children should be debauched by them; and therefore he obliged them to live by themselves, retired in the country..." living not even off the produce of gardens, but rather the produce of their cattle,

(That was comforting to me, since we can't keep gardens much here, but we do live off our chickens and beef cattle we raise, one of which we butchered and froze last week.)

"so that, forseeing the evil coming on the nation of Israel,
"even in the midst of the troubles, they might have peace."
"Let them sit loose to what they had," that "they might with less pain be stripped of it.

They must learn to live by rule and under discipline.

It is good for us all to do so, and to teach our children to do so," admonishes Henry.

Here is another thought related to this, from another blogger I enjoy occasionally.

"If you...have new life in Christ, how aware are you of this whole 'hiddenness' thing?
This was recently a brand new idea to me, as I discovered it in Sara Hagerty’s book, Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in A World That Loves To Be Noticed. As I go throughout my day, I've been trying to imagine myself being tucked away in this hidden, safe place in Christ.--Christy Fitzwater

And along the same line again, here is a poem we saw on Facebook:

O Modesty, Where is Thy Blush?

O Modesty, where is thy blush? we may ask, 

O Nakedness, where is thy shame? 

Fast slipping away from the people of God 

Till some are mere Christians in name. -

O Modesty, thou art a virtue quite rare, 

A most treasured gem of each saint. 

But where are the women aglow with God's love, 

With courage to be labeled quaint? -

The world treats unkindly who will not conform 

To rules that Fashion declares. 

For any who dare to step out from the crowd 

Will notice the whispers and stares. -

Yes, Fashion is cruel, she has her designs, 

For she is the foe of the Lord. 

She violates principles God has laid down 

In counsel quite clear in His Word. -

The daughter of Fashion must pamper her pride, 

For meekness would make her too plain. 

So vanity leads to all manner of show, 

And Modesty's held in disdain. -

As Modesty flees, and the 'goddess' now reigns, 

Discernment and conscience both sleep. 

The church and the world now appear as if one--

How God's holy angels must weep! -

O Modesty, waken the people of God 

And let us recapture thy grace! 

Adorn us with purity, meekness and love--

Prepare us to look on His face!

-

Author unknown