Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

• Luke 16:31

Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.
They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”
But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”
The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

• 1 Kings 12:6-11

“In a quaint caravan there’s a lady they call the Gypsy
She can look at the future and drive away all your fears
Everything will come right if you only believe the Gypsy
She could tell at a glance that my heart was so full of tears

She looked at my hand and told me
My lover was always true
And yet in my heart I knew dear
Somebody else was kissing you

But I’ll go there again ’cause I want to believe the Gypsy
That my lover is true and will come back to me someday

She looked at my hand and told me
My lover was always true
And yet in my heart I knew dear
Somebody else was kissing you

But I’ll go there again ’cause I want to believe the Gypsy
That my lover is true and will come back to me someday”

• Billy Reid, The Gypsy

This post is like a lot of them in this series.  Days after hearing this song, I was driving down the road, wondering what tune I was humming, and then the line about everything coming all right if you only believe the gypsy…  Another earworm.

In reading the words of the song, forgetting the spiritual angle, if we believe in a love story, we think of the great love the singer has for his girl.  If we are cynics, or in this case, realistic, we think, “This guy is pathetic!”

But the words of the song mirror the mantra of the prosperity gospel peddlers.  God will give you your heart’s desire.  It says so right there in the Bible.  You just have to have faith.  And you can prove your faith by giving me your money and God will grant you your desires.

Have you noticed how all these prosperity gospel peddlers are rich, but very few of the people in their churches are rich?  The answer will always be that the poor people did not have enough faith.

In the song, what the gypsy says only comes true if you truly believe it.

But the singer knows the gypsy is not telling the truth.  The singer knows that his girl is untrue.  But the singer returns to the gypsy and pays more cash to hear the gypsy’s lies.  Why?  That is what the singer wants to believe.

Jesus told His disciples shortly before He was betrayed and killed that even if someone rises from the dead, people will not believe, because they will believe what they want to believe.

It is a miracle each time anyone believes in Jesus.  The fallen world that we live in has more shiny things that attract us in that direction.  Who wants to take up a cross and follow Jesus?

But God reveals Himself to those He knows will accept that reverse logic idea.  And as we desire Him above all else, God gives us that desire, more of Jesus.

So, in a way, this song is sad in two ways.  The singer desires the wrong thing and goes to the wrong place.  But the right answer is there all along and the singer is blinded and cannot accept the truth.

Here is Frank Sinatra singing The Gypsy.

God grants our desires.  Yes, the Bible says that.  But there are conditions.  It must be in God’s will, but for us to receive this granted wish, we must desire God, God alone, and God’s will to come on this earth.  So, don’t hold your breath for that Mercedes Benz.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.