Stay Hungry and Thirsty

I don't think anyone prefers troubling times, feeling insecure, or realising we are in danger.  These seasons of hardship can provide a blessing and benefits ease and comfort cannot.  Recently I saw an example firsthand of how trials shift our perspective.  I observed a new social media acquaintance share a series of posts on what bothered them, pet peeves concerning politics and church.  But when there was a diagnosis of cancer in the family, the perspective shifted to seeking God in prayer with tears.  The awful, sudden illness shifted focus from self to God for the better.

The Bible has many such examples.  The book of Judges has a repeating cycle of people doing what is right in their own eyes, crying out to God, then God raising up a deliverer.  Yet as soon as the judge through whom God wrought deliverance and rule died, they ceased from following the LORD.  God revealed this predictable outcome concerning His people in Deuteronomy 32:15-18:  "But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. ¹⁶ They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. ¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. ¹⁸ Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you."

When the house was built, the food abundant, and the enemies defeated, the people of God grew complacent.  With physical needs met and barns full there was little motivation to pray for God to provide.  Thankfulness and gratefulness were swallowed up with greed and covetousness.  Their success caused them to forsake the God who caused them to succeed in every endeavour.  They were not mindful of God because they were not troubled on every side and did not seek His guidance because they were self-confident.  God, in His grace, would allow His own people to fall by the hands of their enemies, to suffer lack and pains, to face famine and languish through drought so they might recognise their lack and turn their eyes to God again.

How silly it is to kick out at God, to provoke Him with pride and idolatry!  This tragic response of God's people has been a cycle common in my life too.  There is a redemptive aspect of failure, tragedy, and trials I do not always appreciate at the time:  God uses seasons of plenty and lack to show us what is in our hearts and to move us to look to Him in thanksgiving and salvation.  It is good for us to come to God hungry and thirsty, desperate for His wisdom and guidance like a little child who runs to his father when he sees a stranger, an unfamiliar cat, or upon hearing a noise at night.  In all our doing, our coming and going, let us not forget the God who fathered us, the God who loves us and has graciously provided for all our needs.  This place of faith, humility, and reliance upon God promotes spiritual fitness and increases energy for His service.

Seeking An Occasion

When God says His thoughts and ways are above ours, He isn't wrong.  How often we look at situations without knowledge necessary to understand what God's purposes are!  Samson's parents faced such a dilemma with their son's choice of a spouse.  He demanded they go to Timnath and arrange a marriage with a Philistine woman who lived there.

Initially Manoah and his wife gently rebuffed the idea, suggesting there must be a woman among their countrymen who would be a more suitable match.  But Samson would not be deterred.  Judges 14:4 reveals this particular choice was of God:  "But his father and mother did not know that it was of the LORD--that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel."  It seems odd God would "seek an occasion" against the Philistines in such an...unorthodox way...as if there is an orthodox way.  Reading this emphatically demonstrates God is right to use whatever means He wants to accomplish His good purposes.  Behind Samson's request for a Philistine bride was an occasion God would use to deliver His people from their oppressors.

God's ways are higher than ours, and like Him we ought to seek opportunities to do good.  We cannot say how God will use a kind word, a compassionate smile, or prayers for the benefit of others.  Galatians 6:9-10 says, "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. ¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith."  God provides us opportunities to spend and be spent for His glory, to give of our time, resources, and efforts to encourage and edify others, especially amongst fellow believers.  A farmer understands the seed he sows will bring forth a crop after its kind, and as we sow to the Spirit there will be eternal fruit we don't even realise.

It was faith in God--not in the wisdom or foresight of their son Samson--which would have provided peace in a very troubling and unexpected development, that Samson would ask for the hand of a Philistine girl in marriage!  How that must have gnawed at them, and what pains they endured when the marriage lasted only days and their son came home angry and broken.  But God knew what He was doing; God's purposes were being furthered in a way none could have predicted.  The vendetta between Samson and the Philistines escalated until the death of Samson, and in his death he defeated more Philistines than he had during his life.  Only God can bring victory in death.

Isn't it amazing God would come to earth and die for sinners on Calvary in the person of Jesus Christ?  No one could have anticipated such a thing, not even the scheming devil himself.  The death of Jesus and His resurrection was a death blow to the powers of Satan, death, and hell.  God provided for Himself a spotless Lamb to atone for the sins of all under Satan's rule, and He shed His own blood to purchase all who will trust in Him.  The ways of God are truly past finding out!  Who knows what God will do in the lives of people and nations to accomplish His purposes!  What appears or actually is foolish in the hands of our gracious God can be redeemed for good and His glory.

Faultless Faith

It is a natural tendency for us to focus on faults we perceive in ourselves or others.  Sometimes these faults are merely a matter of preference, style, or opinion.  Yet in all of us there are genuine faults, damning sins to be repented of:  selfishness, pride, deceit, greed, and covetousness.  These blemishes cannot be covered up or ignored because everyone does them.  Bad behaviour and sinful characteristics in people provides instruction for the wise coupled with the insight of the Holy Spirit:  every fault we see in someone else and condemn, we are guilty of the same.

Finding fault in others might be the easiest task ever.  Doing this also plays to our own pride, thinking we are somehow superior to others because we have not made the same mistakes.  What we fail to recognise is whilst we may not have made the precise mistake because our circumstances differ, the sinful heart and mind found in us is just as deeply flawed and calls for judgment from God.  The things which bother us the most in others tend to be things we still do or used to do.  It grates upon us because it is so us.  We must be careful even in our explanations of behaviours which irritate us lest we become those whom we reproach.

One thing I am sensitive to is the criticism of other Christians, especially those who appear in the Bible.  God has graciously provided us His uncensored Word, not covering or justifying faults of flawed people who trusted in God.  It is a grief to my soul when believers today (and I have been guilty myself in the past) of mocking, scorning, and criticising actions of people in scripture, condemning them for a fault when God commended their faith.  To scoff at the unbelief of the Hebrews in the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt is to scoff at ourselves if we will be honest.  To criticise Elijah for fleeing from Jezebel or Peter who denied Jesus is beside the point:  are we any better?  A list in the "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews 11:32-34 is a great example:  "And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: ³³ who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."

Instead of trotting out a disclaimer about the notable faults of each of these people, it was their faith the writer of Hebrews emphasised and affirmed.  We all have faults to be sure, but this does not condemn us before a God who accounts faith in Him as righteousness.  This should in no way embolden us to sin, but the grace, longsuffering, and goodness of God towards sinners should humble us and urge us to righteous living pleasing to God.  As I grow older I begin to understand a bit better why David said in light of the harsh actions of his cousins, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah?"  While they bayed for blood, justice, and revenge, David realised he already had enough blood on his hands.  I am grown weary of finding fault, and it seems my faults are ever before me.

Faith in God is always better than the appearance of perfection or the self-righteous criticism of others.  Praise the LORD He will not bring my faults to remembrance when I stand before Him, but by faith in Christ He will enable me to stand.  Jesus is the one who will present me faultless (despite my faults!) before the Father with exceeding joy.  The walls of the courtrooms on earth have heard a great deal of testimony concerning heinous crimes committed, but what sin will there be to recount before the judgment seat of Christ when all sins of the saved have already been expunged by Him?  God knows what He has done, and Christ's followers know it too.  If we will not remind Him of our sins on that Day, why should we mock or scorn others for their faults today?  

Don't Be Troubled!

My memory was jogged the other day during conversation to look up a passage in 2 Thessalonians.  Paul wrote in his first letter to the Thessalonians the day of the LORD would come as a thief in the night, suddenly and unexpectedly.  This commonly employed phrase "day of the LORD" throughout the scriptures means a time of judgment from God.  With the persecution and tribulation of the early church, it appears there were some who taught the day of the LORD had already come.  Perhaps they wondered if they had somehow missed the rapture of the church.  Paul refuted this in his second letter, explaining necessary events which much happen first.

Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2, "Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, ² not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come."  Paul wrote intending to provide comfort for followers of Jesus, but it seems they did not understand.  He sought to alleviate their concerns by correcting their understanding.  Paul affirmed the day of Christ had not yet come; they were not experiencing the wrath of God though they suffered much.  He then laid out (in my mind) once of the most clear and concrete explanation of major eschatological milestones in the New Testament.  Since prophecy is not always linear along a timeline, this revelation of the LORD through Paul is very useful and important.

2 Thessalonians 2:3-7 reads, "Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. ⁵ Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? ⁶ And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way."  The "Day" of the LORD would not occur until other prophecies were fulfilled.  Paul spoke of a "falling away," a massive departure from faith in Jesus Christ and the revelation of the "man of sin" who is commonly referred to as the anti-christ.  This son of perdition will exalt himself in the temple (there is currently no temple of God in Jerusalem, much to the dismay of pious Jews) and declare he is God and to be worshipped.

What is restraining this great apostasy?  The presence of the Holy Spirit in the church who fills each believer.  The mystery of lawlessness was already at work in Paul's day and has continued until now, but a day will come when He who restrains will be taken away with the rapture of the church when we are gathered to Jesus.  If we did not have the Holy Spirit within followers of Jesus we could not be presently born again, saved, love one another, or do any viable ministry unto the LORD.  The second coming of Jesus to judge the world in righteousness and the gathering of the church to Himself are two distinct events.  Once the church is removed there will be a great falling away from God like the world has never seen, the anti-christ will be revealed for who he is, and ultimately the Day of the LORD will follow.  Jude 1:14-15 says, "Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, ¹⁵ to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

When I was a kid, I was sadly much more intrigued about who the anti-christ was rather than lifting my eyes to Jesus Christ and following Him.  I was more determined not to receive the "mark of the beast" rather than loving God and other people.  No one knows when the rapture of the church will occur, but we are told of specific things which must occur before the Day of the LORD comes:  the temple will be built, the restraining Holy Spirit will be removed (and Christians with Him for He will never leave or forsake us), there will be a great apostasy, and the anti-christ will demand worship as God in the temple.  Those who once celebrated the return of temple worship of God will have their eyes opened to behold the reality the one they perhaps imagined to be their hero and messiah to be unveiled as a blasphemer and devil.  Amazingly, many will come to Christ during the great tribulation period, and the return of Jesus with His saints will bring it to a close with the establishment of Christ's physical kingdom in Jerusalem.

Instead of feeling unsettled or troubled, what confidence we can have in our Saviour Jesus Christ!  Let us recall the words of Jesus to His disciples in John 14:1-4:  "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴ And where I go you know, and the way you know."  All who trust in Christ need not fear, for He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He is with us today, and we will be together forever.