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Great Themes of the Bible Series
#9 Trusting in God
God invites us to trust him on the good days and the bad ones, when we are enjoying every
moment of life or when we are discouraged to the point of depression. His promise is that
he will never abandon us, that our faith will never be fruitless, that he will work
everything to the long-term good of those who trust him.
Don't you love all those great Bible stories about the heroes and heroines of faith? They are the stories most of us were taught as children about human faith in divine faithfulness. We learned the stories of Noah and Abraham, Ruth and Esther. And we were told that the same God who honored and vindicated their trust in him would be with us in our times of crisis, if we would trust him too.
The unnamed writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews must have had similar feelings about his background in the Torah and synagogue. So Hebrews 11 is a veritable litany of heroes of faith. Interestingly, he cites not only the triumphant stories of Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Rahab but the accounts of people who appear to have been discredited and triumphed over in their circumstances.
For example, he begins his list with Abel, the murdered son of Adam and Eve who provoked Cain's bloodthirsty anger by offering the Lord an acceptable sacrifice. "And by faith he still speaks," he writes, "even though he is dead" (Heb. 11:4).
Perhaps this reminds us that one's trust in God does not have to be vindicated with an immediate deliverance, triumph, or healing in order to be justified. As Hebrews 11 moves to a close, the writer resorts to a common preacher's device (i.e., "I'm running out of time here, so I'll just summarize!") and begins compressing stories.
He lists the names of Gideon, Samson, David, Samuel and "the prophets" and then leaves nameless several saints who "conquered kingdoms" and "received back their dead, raised to life again." He adds: "Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated — the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground" (Heb. 11:35b-38).
That's not the outcome I want to my faith! I want to be vindicated immediately. I want to get well now. I want my prayers answered positively in the short term. Are you really that different? Be honest now! But the correctness of trusting God isn't always conspicuous in the immediate context. Think about the experience of Jesus.
Life's "Mixed Bag"
Life on Planet Earth is a "mixed bag" of triumphs and tragedies, victories and reversals. What did ABC Sports used to say about "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat"? Why that could have been the title of a series on The History of the Human Race.
If faith and prayer were a formula for guaranteed outcomes of the sort we want, everyone would be a prayerful Christian — for the simple reason that we are all selfish. The practical challenge to a child is to trust his mother when he doesn't understand why she's letting a nurse stick him with that long needle. The practical challenge to the children of God comes when we don't understand why he permits certain things to happen in this fallen world.
So we hear this challenge: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" (Prov. 3:5). We read Job's words in the midst of his terrible illness and even greater confusion about its true source: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15, NKJV).
And — in one of the most impressive case studies in all the Bible — you hear the bold faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when the king of Babylon is threatening them with annihilation. "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king," they said. "But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up" (Dan. 3:17- 18).
Now that's faith in the faithfulness of the Lord!
Life's mixed bag has good days and bad ones. Optimistic beginnings trail off into absolute disaster, and faltering starts come to glorious ends. Good people sometimes suffer terrible injustices, and villains get by with murder. When someone who has declared his or her trust in the Lord seems to be getting a "bad deal," the great temptation is to sell out to the other side. And that is where faith is tested and approved.
Paul Azinger, after battling back from cancer to resume playing on the PGA tour, said there are two ways to react to something like he had gone through. "You can say, ‘Why me, God? Why me?'" he told a reporter. "Or you can do an about-face and run to God and cling to him for your security and your hope. That's what I did."
The Divine Invitation
God invites us to trust him on the good days and the bad ones, when we are enjoying every moment of life or when we are discouraged to the point of depression. His promise is that he will never abandon us, that our faith will never be fruitless, that he will work everything to the long-term good of those who trust him. But trusting in God against the appearances of the moment is so hard!
The challenge, you will remember from Proverbs 3:5 is this: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."
But we tend to panic in a crisis and fall back on our own ingenuity and devices.
In the eighth century before Christ, Isaiah was Yahweh's prophet to a declining Israel in a time of Assyrian expansion into the region of Canaan. Instead of trusting the Lord in this crisis time, Israel's kings made unholy alliances with Assyria — a decision of political convenience that was condemned forthrightly by Isaiah (cf. 7:1ff).
It was for this sin among others that Israel was later brought into captivity by Babylon. In the midst of these machinations, listen to Isaiah's prophetic message: "This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it'" (Isaiah 30:15).
What a paradigm for human faithlessness before an utterly trustworthy God!
Hear these words from another Old Testament prophet from several decades after Isaiah's time:
This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit" (Jeremiah 17:5-8)..
Dwight L. Moody said it this way: "Trust in
yourself, and you are doomed to disappointment; trust in your friends, and they
will die and leave you; trust in money, and you may have it taken from you;
trust in reputation, and some slanderous tongue may blast it; but trust in God,
and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity."
In the short term, evil often has the upper hand. In the short term, injustice
may prevail. In the short term, there may be poverty or suffering. In the short
term, you may lose everything and everybody you deemed important to your life.
In the long term, however, evil cannot win and every injustice will be
overthrown; in the long term, those who have put their trust in the Lord will
share in his glory, wealth, and life. All the darkness of evil will give way to
the brilliant light of the Lord!
Psalm 145
Our primary text is from a psalm that Walter Brueggemann calls "a representative statement of Israel's joyous and grateful confidence in the Creator." From beginning to end, it touts the theme that Yahweh is the Great King who governs the universe and whose faithfulness to his people can be relied upon.
The psalm is an acrostic poem in which each successive line begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in sequence. We lose that feature, of course, in English translation. But the point of it remains obvious enough. The Lord God of Israel has created this world and arranged everything about its function so that nothing is beyond his ability to bring to the end he has announced in advance. The rule of the Great King of the Universe is well-arranged and its holy outcomes assured, from A-to-Z.
After the expected praise to God's mighty acts and gracious deeds in verses 1-13a, verses 13b-20a make a shift that surprises us and provides the main clue for the psalm. In a bold evangelical move the psalm asserts that Yahweh's great power is directed especially toward the weak and the needy. There is no further reflection on God's regal person, but only on God's self-giving attentiveness to God's creatures, the ones who have no claim but depend solely on God's inclination.
Psalm 145 affirms what everyone would like to know, but the circumstances of
life often take away such confidence in God. It can only be known by faith and
not by sight in those unsettling times (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7).
The LORD is faithful to all his promises and
loving toward all he has made.
The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.
You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
The LORD is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made.
The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves
them.
The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
The Creator God of the Universe has carefully positioned himself to break our
fall into oblivion, to catch us when we feel we are tumbling head over heels
into the abyss.
Be conscious of the presence of the Lord
2 Cor 2: 12, 13 Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good- bye to them and went on to Macedonia.
Troas, where Paul sat awaiting Titus, was a Roman colony, named Alexandria Troas in honor of Alexander the Great. By 57 A.D. the city was a flourishing little Rome, basking in many political privileges given by the hand of Caesar. Paul was quite familiar with this city, located some 150 miles north of Ephesus, for it was here, some five years earlier, he had had a vision.
Acts 16:9 tells us, "During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' Paul at once set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them."
Beginning in Philippi,
the gospel moved westward to Europe. So, having been in this city earlier, Paul
knew there were some believers there, thus he went to Troas with a two-fold
agenda; to wait for Titus, and to preach the gospel.
There he found, "that the Lord had opened a door for me." God had opened a door
for him to preach the good news of Christ as he had done once before in that
city. That was Paul's very heartbeat, to preach Jesus, the Son of God, the
Messiah who had come to take away the sins of mankind. Jesus was and is the only
and final solution to man's sin, guilt and shame.
As the perfect Lamb of
God, he who knew no sin took upon himself our sins at Calvary. Then God the
Father decreed that all who by faith believe that Jesus is his Son, and
acknowledge him as Lord and Savior, asking him to forgive their sins, will
henceforth be called his children, and they would receive the Person and power
of the Holy Spirit to enable them to cope with reality. That was Paul's message
everywhere he went.
Not only was he willing and ready to preach the gospel, he was keenly aware of
the presence of the resurrected Lord going before him, opening some doors of
opportunity and closing others As he stood in the marketplace of the city of
Troas, then, his heart must have been beating with joy and fear as he
anticipated the Lord working through him. He was probably encouraged by his
friends to make good use of the opportunity of the open door to proclaim the
gospel of Christ. But, amazingly, despite the open door, despite the presence of
the resurrected Lord and the assurance of his spiritual family, Paul says, "I
still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there."
In these words we get a glimpse of Paul's humanity. He is a man filled with the
Holy Spirit, convinced that the Lord is at work through him, and yet he finds no
rest in his spirit because Titus is not there at Troas to reassure him that his
beloved Corinthian church is reconciled to him. He has no peace of mind, no rest
in his spirit.
Where is the use in
starting a new work if his spiritual family in Corinth is still struggling over
whether he was a genuine apostle of Christ? he probably wondered. Are they still
angry at me or have they repented? Should I return to Corinth again and try to
work out that situation before beginning a new ministry? There are always more
opportunities to share the gospel than there is time or energy or Christians to
meet. God is somehow behind all of that. He seems to place us in these
situations of stress and tension in order to teach us something.
So, failing to find Titus at Troas, and finding no rest in his spirit as a
result, what does Paul do? "I said good-bye to them and went on to Macedonia,"
he tells us. He is perhaps hoping that Titus will meet him there in Philippi.
I'm sure he felt he had not made a mistake by not entering the open door at
Troas. Rather, he struggled over what was good and what, perhaps, was even
better. Later in this letter he writes this, "For when we came into Macedonia,
this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn--conflicts on
the outside, fears within" (2 Cor 7:5). So we see that while he was under stress
at Troas as he awaited Titus, stress was his lot once again on his journey to
Philippi.
"How can we maintain peace of mind in the midst of a stressful, fallen world?"
We should be conscious of the presence of the Lord. But we must also be aware
that our walk of faith is not computer-programmed so that if we follow all the
steps page by page we will experience immediate success. Paul illustrated in his
life that he was keenly aware of the presence of the Lord. But he also was a man
in the process of becoming mature in Christ, from one degree of glory to
another. There was no such thing as instant spiritual maturity. Also, no doubt,
there was some spiritual warfare involved in this situation he found himself in.
So the key to maintaining peace of mind is learning to trust that God is at
work. Even when we choose to walk away from open doors of opportunity God can
still use our lives to bring great blessings to us and to others, as we will
see.
Paul goes on to give us some more insights into his relationship with the Lord.
That relationship enabled him to look at his stressful situation and still be
conscious of the presence of God, and also be conscious of the power of God
which can overcome what on the surface looks like failure and weakness.
Be conscious of the
power of God
2 Cor 2:14-17: But thanks be to
God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us
spreads every where the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the
aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To
the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who
is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for
profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men
sent from God.
"But thanks be to God...." What has happened to Paul between verses 13 and 14 to make him utter this cry of thankfulness? It's obvious he's not thankful that Titus didn't meet him in Troas, or that the church in Corinth was being subverted by false apostles. Nor is he thankful for his conflict with the church there, for the lost opportunity to preach the gospel at Troas, or for the stress he experienced in that city and on his journey to Macedonia. What was he thankful for, then? We discover the reason in chapter 7 of this letter, which explains Paul's change of heart between verses 13 and 14 of our text.
But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever. (2 Cor. 7:6-7)
Paul was thankful that
God was able to work above and beyond his stressful circumstances. Titus
reported to him that the Corinthians had accepted the painful letter, they had
repented of their attitude toward him, and they were dealing with the issue of
sexual immorality in the church. Paul had no peace of mind in Troas while he
awaited Titus, he was harassed at every turn on his way to Macedonia, but God
was already at work changing the hearts of the Corinthians. No wonder he is able
to say, "Thanks be to God...." God can work in a much greater way than we can
ever ask or think.
"But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ...."
In these words, Paul illustrates the truth that, no matter what the
circumstances, Christians are always victorious in their walk with Christ. He
even compares the Christian's victory with the spectacle of the triumphal
processions which were awarded to victorious Roman army generals in that first
century day. These processions were awarded to generals who: 1) were supreme
commanders in the field of battle; 2) had successfully concluded the campaign,
the people had been pacified and his troops brought home; 3) if 5,000 of the
enemy had fallen in one battle; 4) new territory had been gained; and, 5) the
victory had been over a foreign power (not in a civil war, in other words).
These processions were
awe-inspiring spectacles. The whole populace of Rome flocked to see the parade
of standard-bearers carrying the flags of the various military units; the
reclining statue of Jupiter, the supreme God of Rome, being carried along; carts
containing the spoils of war; paintings and models of the conquered territory;
musicians playing pipes; white bulls (which were later to be sacrificed to
gods); prisoners in chains marching to their death; horn blowers; priests
swinging pots of incense; captured kings and chieftains being carried in carts;
other groups of prisoners; a golden chariot drawn by four white horses and
driven by the victorious general, the wreath of Jupiter being held over his head
by a slave; the general's family; the victorious army in full uniform, shouting,
"Lo! Triumph!"; and finally, the Roman hierarchy, senators and magistrates.
Here the apostle uses the spectacle of a Roman triumphal procession to
illustrate the glory of the Christian's everyday walk in Christ. And this
doesn't just happen once or twice in the Christian's life, unlike the victorious
generals of Rome. Everyday, come what may, even through what looks like utter
and absolute defeat, Jesus Christ leads his followers in triumph as he wins
spiritual battles over the enemy, over "spiritual forces in the heavenly realm."
Remember that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Eph 6:12). By his
death and resurrection, Jesus has already defeated the evil one. Thus, even when
things seem to be falling apart, Christians can cry, no matter what the
circumstances--in the kitchen, at work and play, at the graveside of a friend
and loved one, at the side of an abandoned family, when we find we've lost our
jobs in this rapidly changing valley--"Lo! Triumph!" We are in Christ, therefore
all through our lives we are part of a continuing triumphal procession. "Thanks
be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ."
Further, Paul says, "Through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the
knowledge of Christ." Here the apostle is thinking of the priests in the
triumphal procession, carrying pots of incense, the fragrance wafting over the
whole procession. Paul compares Christians to incense pots: they carry with them
everywhere the aroma of Christ so that those who come in contact with them
experience the fragrance of the Lord.
Christians will take
that aroma of Christ with them into all kinds of situations. The fragrance will
not disappear nor will it be restricted. It will linger long after they have
left any group, any individual or situation.
Paul also says "thanks be to God" because we are always acceptable in the sight
of God. When God looks at the life of a Christian he regards us as totally
acceptable because he looks at us through Christ. That's good news. I wouldn't
want anybody to see the video tapes of my life before I came to Christ and my
sins were forgiven. Yet, when I come into the presence of God the Father and I
tell him I'm sorry about the tapes, about how I lived my life before I came to
him, he will look at me as one whose sins were forgiven in Christ and promise to
remember my sins no more. We have been set free in Christ. That is why we are
acceptable to God.
But that fragrance of the knowledge of Christ comes to the nostrils of two very
different groups, Paul says. First, "those who are being saved." In the context,
they would have been healthy and useful slaves--cooks, house servants,
administrators, etc.--who were taken to the slave markets to be sold and
scattered throughout the populace, many of them to be set free later. The second
group Paul refers to are "those who are perishing." These were the captured
kings and chieftains, riding in carts of humiliation along with the sick, the
rebellious and the aged. All of these were taken to a tent following the parade
and strangled. Thus the incense was to them "the smell of death."
"Who is equal to such a
task?" asks the apostle, addressing both the Corinthians and himself. He will
answer this question in detail in the next chapter of the letter.
In light of these wonderful truths, as he seeks to encourage the Corinthians by
what he was learning through both his struggles and the good news brought to him
by Titus in response to his painful letter, there is stress evident in Paul's
final words in this section: "Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God
for profit." False apostles had begun to peddle and huckster the word in the
Corinthian church. Here Paul contrasts his Christ-centered ministry with their
self-centered ministry. These false apostles (4:2) were watering down the
Scriptures, trying to make them more palatable to the Corinthians. But Paul had
already written to them, "When I preached the gospel I offered it without
charge" (1 Cor 9:18).
Finally, Paul contrasts
his ministry with that of the false apostles: "On the contrary, in Christ we
speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God." He is saying to them,
in effect, "You Corinthians know that our life and power come from the
resurrected Jesus working through us. We are always aware that our lives and
words are seen and heard by God the Father, so we seek to live and speak
righteously. As ambassadors of Christ our lives are not our own. We no longer
live for ourselves. We are ministers of reconciliation."
How can we maintain peace of mind in the midst of our high tech, fast-lane
society? The voices of the human potential movement and the new age movement
promise relief from physical, emotional and spiritual stress by telling us we
can be winners, or by informing us we are gods. But the inspired apostle's
answer is that the secret to maintaining peace of mind is to be conscious of the
presence of our resurrected Lord who is forever with us as we grow in wisdom and
knowledge; and also be conscious of the power of God who is able in and through
us to defeat all our spiritual and human enemies as we walk day by day, trusting
him in the midst of stress, not as winners or gods, but by being servants of the
Living God.
TRUSTING GOD IN THE DARKNESS
Heavenly vision
When Stephen, a follower of Jesus, was dragged before the Sanhedrin, he did not shrink from declaring the truth. He was taken to a very dark place, spiritually, surrounded by enemies of God. At the conclusion of his defense, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged. At that point, in the middle of the darkness, a light shone forth. He was full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven, he saw the glory of God and he saw Jesus at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55). The vision was given to show Stephen that though the earthly court found him guilty, the heavenly court would vindicate him. The members of the Sanhedrin stoned him. But Stephen would take his place with Jesus at the right hand of the Father.
Like Stephen, we will end up in some dark places, some confusing places. We can obey God as he leads us to those places, and trust him there, because we know he will vindicate us, as he vindicates the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 50:4-11.
This passage presents the third of Isaiah’s four Servant Songs, in which God’s ideal for Israel is summed up in an individual.
In this song, the Servant listens to God, while Israel does not (Isaiah 50:2); the Servant is confident, while Israel is not (Isaiah 49:14); the Servant suffers for being obedient, while Israel suffers for being sinful (Isaiah 50:1); the Servant is vindicated, while Israel is found guilty (Isaiah 50:1).
The obedient Servant (50:4-6, NIV)
The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.
The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious;
I have not drawn back. offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.
The Servant recognizes that the Lord has given him an “instructed tongue” so that he speaks as a disciple, as a learner, as one who has been taught. Because of this learning, he has the knowledge necessary to speak effectively. Specifically, he knows how to “sustain the weary” with a word. He knows what those who are weary need to hear so that their faith may be strengthened.
The Lord awakens him morning by morning, demonstrating that this awakening is of first priority and that it happens on an ongoing basis. The reason the Lord awakens his Servant each day is so that he may awaken his ear. With an awakened ear, the Servant is sensitive to the words of the Lord; he listens “like one being taught”--as a disciple, as a learner. The Servant has an effective tongue because he has an open ear.
Having had his ear opened by the Lord to listen to the word of the Lord, the Servant was not disobedient. Evidently, the Lord spoke some hard words to his Servant. The Servant, though his ears were opened by the Lord, could have closed them when he heard the words, but he kept listening. His first act of obedience, then, was to keep listening. His second act of obedience was to move forward in the manner that the Lord asked him to, for he did not “turn back.”
He would have every reason for wanting to turn back, however, based on the description of what he encountered. He submitted to agonizing abuse at the hands of his enemies. The Lord gave his Servant an instructed tongue, but the Servant gives his enemies his back that they might beat him and he gives them his cheeks that they might ridicule him, pulling out his beard. He did not cover his face from mocking and spitting but instead accepted the full force of such derision. This kind of experience is one that anyone would turn away from if he could, yet the Servant does not turn back.
Jesus, the Servant of the Lord, knew how to speak to sustain those who were weak in faith. Invariably, people of faith had their faith strengthened, or challenged that it might be strengthened, after Jesus spoke to them. He had different words for each, depending on who they were and what they needed. Although sisters Martha and Mary lost the same brother, he had different words for each (John 11:17-37). He knew how to speak because he knew how to listen. The Lord God awakened him morning by morning; thus we find Jesus leaving in the early morning, while it was still dark, for a lonely place in order to meet with God (Mark 1:35). He stayed awake in the garden while his disciples fell asleep in order that he might hear from the Father (Mark 13:32-44). He “learned obedience” (Hebrews 5:8).
Jesus heard the hard words of the Father, the words that finally led him to the darkest place on earth, a little hill outside Jerusalem. Although he was given ample opportunities to choose another path, he did not turn back, even when hanging on the cross, absorbing the sins of the world and losing the presence of the Father (John 18:11, Matthew 27:38-44, Mark 15:34). He submitted to beating, mocking and spitting (Matthew 27:28-31).
Are you weak in faith? Do you sometimes find yourself flagging? Do you sometimes wonder whether the life of faith is worth it? Jesus knows you. He knows your temperament, your tendencies and your circumstances. He knows the words you need to hear when you need to hear them. He knows how to sustain you, the weary one, opening your heart to the scriptures or to the words of a brother or sister. In obedience to the Father, but with you in mind, he did not turn back, but endured beating, mocking, and crucifixion.
The Lord God gives us, as servants of the Lord who follow Jesus, an instructed tongue. But to have a tongue you first need an ear. Surely, the Lord awakens each of us morning by morning. After awakening us, the Lord wants to awaken our ears each day so that we will listen to him. Listening to the Lord each day is of first priority and ongoing priority. We may be hard of hearing, but the Lord keeps working on our ears. Jesus was not disobedient, first of all, in that he listened and kept listening, even though he heard some hard words. If we’re not hearing from God, perhaps it’s that we’re not listening; perhaps we’re not spending time with him; perhaps we’re not asking him to speak to us. Perhaps we don’t want to hear from him because we fear what he might ask us to do or stop doing.
Listening is hard work. Jesus was constantly looking for people who had ears to hear, but he didn’t find many. It’s much easier to fill up your time, and to cover up your anxiety and your loneliness, with activity. It’s much easier to turn on the television than to listen to God. It’s easier to watch a movie than read a book. It’s easier to read a book than read the scriptures. When it comes to listening to God, we want it to be easy listening. We don’t want to have to work to listen. Our entertainment culture has lulled our ears to sleep. We want to be entertained, not instructed. Our ears are asleep, but God wants to awaken them, and he is working to do that every day. That’s why he awakens you day by day.
As you open your ear to listen, you will hear about God’s astounding love for you, and you will probably hear some hard words as well. You will be confronted with truth about your resistance to that love, and you will get the impression that you need to move forward into risky ministry and relational areas that may expose you to possible derision and even humiliation. You may hear more general impressions than specific instructions. Listen and obey. Walk down the path, and do not turn back.
Some of you are spiritually asleep. You’re going through the motions. This church thing is a routine for you. It may be nice and pleasant for you, but it cannot be said that your heart burns with passion for Christ. God is seeking to awaken you, and you need to wake up and listen to him. Beg God to give you passions that match his reality.
Those who listen and obey, who take some risks and feel some pain, develop an instructed tongue. In their pain they have cried out to God, and he opens their ears to hear words of comfort. Rejection on earth opens the door to comfort from heaven. They know how to sustain the weary one, because they too have been weary and have been blessed by uplifting words. The Father has comforted them in their affliction that they may comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). They speak with compassion and conviction.
When Jesus began speaking some hard words, many of his followers “turned back and no longer followed him.” In Isaiah 50:5, we see that Jesus, the Servant of the Lord, would not turn back, but in John 6, we see that many of his followers did. He asked his 12 disciples, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Peter answered, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:60-68). The Servant of the Lord spoke some hard words, but Peter kept listening. He continued to obey and follow. Of course, later on he denied Jesus. When the cock crowed, he cried bitter tears. He became weary. After Jesus was resurrected, he came to Peter, served him breakfast and spoke to him. Jesus sustained his weary disciple with his words. And when the Spirit descends on the Day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2, boy, does Peter ever have something to say! When he’s finished, 3,000 people are baptized. He heard. He obeyed. He spoke. We must do the same.
This world is weary--weary of sin, which is tearing people apart. As followers of Jesus, we now have the words of eternal life. They have been entrusted to us. Where else is the weary world going to go to hear these words? If they don’t come to us, we must go to them and tell them about Jesus, the Servant of the Lord.
Vindication of the Servant (50:7-9, NIV)
Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.
He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me?
Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me!
It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who is he that will condemn me?
They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.
How can the Servant obey and not turn back when the path he is told to walk down is so hard? The Lord “helps” him. Although the Servant exposes himself to humiliation of the worst kind, because of the Lord’s help he nevertheless is not disgraced (the words translated “mocking” in verse 6 and “disgraced” in verse 7 are related words). Because of the Lord’s help, he has set his face “like flint”--he is resolute in the face of opposition. Because of the Lord’s help, he knows that he will not be ashamed.
How specifically does the Lord help him? The Lord, who he recognizes as near to him, “vindicates” him. This is a courtroom term for a courtroom scene. In verses 7 and 8 the Servant challenges his opponents, with the Lord serving as judge. Those who have struck his back, pulled out his beard and spit on him are invited to present their case. The Servant has no problem inviting his enemies to “draw near” because he knows that the Lord, who is near, will rule in his favor.
His enemies would condemn him, but they will fail. Unlike the Servant, who sets his face like flint, the enemies will “wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them.” Their failure will be gradual and almost imperceptible but certain nevertheless. They don’t even have the staying power to present their case, because they come to the knowledge that they have none to present and that the Lord will not vindicate them.
Jesus, the Servant of the Lord, knew that the Lord God would help him; he knew that the Lord God would vindicate him. Therefore, he set his face like flint. He “set his face to go to Jerusalem” and face his accusers (Luke 9:51). He submitted to the authorities who put him on trial and condemned him. Jesus said very little at his trial. The only words Matthew records him as saying are these, spoken to the high priest and the Sanhedrin, in response to the question whether he was the Messiah: “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64). Those words were enough to condemn him, for he claimed that he was the Son of Man (Daniel 7:13-14), the representative of the true people of God, and that he would be vindicated by God. The authorities stood up to Jesus in their makeshift courtroom, but they don’t stand a chance in God’s courtroom, the only one that counts, and Jesus knew it.
In standing up to his accusers, Jesus was standing up for you, for the words he spoke were used to convict him and send him to the cross, the place from which he extended God’s offer of salvation.
How is it that we can obey God, putting ourselves forward into risky ministry and relational arenas? How is it that we can endure derision and humiliation? As servants of the Lord, we know that the Lord God helps us; we know that he will vindicate us for following Jesus. God does not help those who help themselves; he helps those who obey him. We can obey, because we know the Judge. We know that we will not be disgraced or ashamed in his courtroom, so we have confidence when we enter the various human “courtrooms” of our lives, when our reputations are on the line. Knowing that we will not be ashamed, we experience deep satisfaction from doing the hard thing, even if it means being misunderstood.
Just after reporting that Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem, Luke tells us that three people expressed interest in following Jesus, but Jesus told them how hard it would be (Luke 9:57-62):
And as they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” And he said to another, “Follow me.” But he said, “Permit me first to go and bury my father.” But he said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” And another also said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
If Jesus set his face like flint in this way, his followers can expect that they will have to do the same.
Do you have any enemies? Perhaps there are those who would love to see you humiliated for your faithfulness to Jesus. More significantly, you have spiritual enemies--Satan and his demons, who would, so to speak, strike your back, pluck out your beard, mock you, spit on you. They would do everything they can, through emotional intimidation, to keep you from following Jesus. As servants of the Lord, we ask, “Who will bring charges against me? Who is my accuser?” Paul, echoing Isaiah, says, “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us” (Romans 8:33-34). If God is for us (and he is!) and he helps us and vindicates us (and he does!), it doesn’t matter who is against us (Romans 8:31). We can welcome the examination of the world, even Satan himself. Why? Because “he who vindicates me is near.” If the Lord God is near, it doesn’t matter who else is near and what kind of havoc they’re trying to cause. Those who oppose us because we follow Jesus will all wear out like garments. It may be a gradual, almost imperceptible process, but it is inevitable.
Don’t worry about judgments rendered on earth that would make you feel disgraced, ashamed and condemned. The earthly courtroom is not the one that matters. Rest assured that in the heavenly courtroom, the only one that matters, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). In fact, the earthly and demonic judgments that make us feel condemned can actually liberate us to see the true courtroom and the true Judge. This happens as we grow weary of feelings of shame and condemnation and come to believe that there has to be a different kind of courtroom and a different kind of Judge. Are you tired of being emotionally bound to the court of public opinion? Turn your eyes to the heavenly courtroom and to the heavenly Judge. He will set you free.
In the person of Jesus, the heavenly Judge came to earth. The earthly prosecutors found an adulterous woman. They disgraced and shamed the woman and deemed her worthy of condemnation and stoning. They brought her to Jesus, hoping to trap him and thereby accuse him.
John tells the story (John 8:7-11):
But when they persisted in asking him, he straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And when they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and he was left alone, and the woman, where she had been, in the midst. And straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” And she said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go your way; from now on sin no more.”
When Jesus turned an earthly courtroom into a heavenly one, the woman’s opponents wore out like a garment. The same will happen with all the opponents of Jesus’ followers.
Trusting in God (50:10-11, NIV)
Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant?
Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light,
trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.
But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze.
This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.
Isaiah now applies the Servant Song to the lives of his hearers. In verse 10, Isaiah says what those who fear the Lord should do. In verse 11, he says what those who don’t fear the Lord should do, if they want to be condemned by the Lord God.
Those who fear the Lord are also described as obeying the voice of his Servant and as walking in darkness. The Servant himself was obedient to God (verse 5) and knew the word to speak (verse 4); now those who fear God are also to be obedient to the voice of the Servant. His words carry the authority of God. The Servant has listened to God and therefore has an instructed tongue. His voice should be heard, and his words should be obeyed. Wouldn’t those who fear the Lord and obey the Servant of the Lord be walking not in the darkness but in the light? If one obeys the Servant, he will walk as the Servant walked, and he will walk into places of darkness, where nothing makes sense. In such places, he who fears the Lord should “trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.”
Those who don’t fear the Lord also walk in darkness. Isaiah suggests that, instead of relying on God, they should walk in the light of their fires and carry their torches. His use of irony is designed to cause them to put out their fires and trust in the Lord instead. But he’s also saying, “If you want your way, you can have it.” When those who don’t fear the Lord enter places of darkness, they trust in the fires that they can light, not in God. In the end, though, they will walk neither in darkness nor in light. Without the Lord to lean on, they will “lie down in torment.” This phrase is metaphorical language for the judgment that awaits those who persist in lifelong resistance to God and his Servant. The poem began with the waking of the Servant. It ends with the lying down of those who do not follow the Servant.
Whether or not we fear the Lord, we will find ourselves in places of darkness. If we fear the Lord and obey the voice of his Servant, Jesus, we will not only stumble into places of darkness but intentionally walk into them. We will move forward, seeking to serve, seeking to give, seeking to love, even if we don’t know how. We’ll be misunderstood and criticized. The response may not be what we hoped for, but it may be what we feared. We may feel rejection, disgrace, shame, condemnation, humiliation, abandonment, loneliness. When we experience these feelings, we may feel extremely vulnerable. In this place, nothing makes sense, except perhaps the vague sense that we’re in the right place, and that God has asked us to enter it. We cling to this belief because we know we entered this place seeking to follow Jesus in the way of love.
How are we to survive in this place? Isaiah presents us with two options: First, we can trust in the name of the Lord and rely on our God. Secondly, we can light a fire, provide ourselves with torches and walk in the light of our own fire. We can rely on our God in the darkness of confusion, or we can try to dispel the darkness of confusion with our own light. By relying on God, we draw close to him, abide by his word and trust that dawn will break. By lighting our own fire, we reject the opportunity to draw near to God, and we devise our own methods to make life more manageable, more quickly. At more extreme levels, this means resorting to deception, manipulation, intimidation and the like. At less extreme levels, it means making the elimination of the confusion a greater goal than drawing near to God. Technological advances have convinced us that there’s a solution for every problem. We have become a society of problem solvers. One of our biggest problems is that we are more interested in solving problems than knowing God. God gives us problems that we might know him.
Are you in a place of darkness now? Does it seem to be a long dark tunnel without end? Trust in the name of the Lord and rely on your God. In the darkness of a womb, a baby is formed. In the darkness of a tunnel, a servant of the Lord is formed.
When Jesus told his disciples to come to Judea with him, his disciples protested, because the Jews tried to stone him the last time he was there (John 10:31). Jesus wanted to risk his life--and bring his disciples with him--in order to raise Lazarus from the dead, although the disciples had trouble understanding this purpose. Jesus told his disciples, “Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.” Jesus asked them to go to a dark place. Finally, Thomas, obeying the voice of the Servant, said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:7-16). Thomas, thinking that he would probably be killed, followed Jesus to Judea, and in moving forward into the darkness, he, along with the rest of the disciples, saw the glory of God when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:4, 40). Dawn broke in spectacular fashion.
Different position
Just as dawn broke for Thomas, dawn broke for Stephen as well. While his opponents where stoning him to death, he saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus at the right hand of God. As noted earlier, Jesus told the members of the Sanhedrin that they would see him at the right hand of God. Stephen, in relaying his vision of Jesus in heaven, is telling the Sanhedrin that Jesus’ words are being fulfilled and that they were tragically mistaken in convicting and executing Jesus. So the Sanhedrin killed Stephen as well.
Whenever the New Testament mentions the specific position of Jesus at the right hand of the Father, it depicts him as sitting (Matthew 26:34, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3, 1:13, 8:1, 10:12, 12:2). This image has its origination in Psalm 110:1, where the Lord says to the king of Israel, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” To sit at the right hand of the throne of God was to sit on a throne as a king (Daniel 7:13-14).
Stephen saw Jesus in a different position. Here is what Stephen says: “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). Stephen sees Jesus not sitting but standing. Jesus rises from his throne to become Stephen’s legal advocate. If the Judge and King rises from his throne and becomes a legal advocate, you know what the verdict will be: Vindication.
Now that’s an image for you! Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and the King of Glory, standing for you! As you seek to obey God as he leads you into confusing places, and as you seek to trust him there, know that Jesus, the Son of Man and the Servant of the Lord, is helping you. One day you’ll see him as clearly as Stephen did. Jesus will rise from his throne to welcome his servant home.
Get that image in your mind and never forget it. Let the glory of the image of Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father be your light as you venture forth into the dark places of this world.
FAITH THAT PLEASES GOD
We have considered such themes in our studies in the book of Hebrews. Today we have reached the greatly loved eleventh chapter of the letter. Three verses from chapter 10 set the context for this extended discussion of the nature of faith:
Remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly, by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners, and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. (Hebrews 10:32-34)
The author is saying, "Remember the early days, when your spiritual possession in Christ was so valuable you were joyfully willing to set aside the things that this world promises." But in the intervening years these early recipients of the letter faced temptation and pressure to devalue the possession that once had meant so much to them. They began to ask what they were really committed to, to rethink their goals and purposes in life and look to things that paid off in this world. They had succumbed to temptation and pressure and were losing their way.
Having raised that issue, the writer now turns in this glorious chapter to the importance of Christian faith the means by which we overcome temptation and pressure. He urges his readers to capture again a life that is centered on things yet future, on things that cannot be seen, and on the certainty of the promises of God. As we study this section we may find ourselves asking, from what source have we learned the things that are important to us? Who has taught us? Are there certain things for which we will set aside everything else in order to acquire them?
What is our destination?
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN IN NUMBER, AND INNUMERABLE AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE. (Hebrews 11:1-12)
Hebrews 11:1 gives a very succinct definition of faith. Christians are charged to live by faith, to choose faith as the means by which to make their way through life. This is the option that Scripture holds before us, and we must choose it over all others. Thus, a clear and succinct definition of the word is welcome, and we have it in these words: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
There are two points, essentially, being made in that verse. The first is that the future is more important than the present. Faith is the assurance of things "hoped" for. For Christians, the word "hope" does not imply contingency–something that may or may not happen.
Our world today is caught up in a love affair with youth. People do all kinds of things to themselves in an effort to look younger, to regain what time has taken away. By so doing they are demonstrating a fear of what is to come. Christians, on the other hand, are committed to the proposition that the most important things for them are yet future.
Secondly, Hebrews 11:1 holds that the invisible things are more important than the things that are seen. What is the difference between a house and a home? True, both are physical structures, buildings in which people reside. But there are vast differences between them. A house may be a cold, foreboding structure, without welcome, laughter or joy. The residents may be uneasy with each other and lack commitment to each other. That building may be a house, but it is not a home. Yet another building, which is similar in structure to the house, can be called a home because in it is living a committed, loving family. In that home joy and hospitality are expressed toward visitors, but from the outside these are invisible qualities; they cannot be measured or seen.
So while both buildings look alike, what is going on inside them is what transforms one from a house into a home.
In a much more profound way, the Scriptures declare that it is the invisible things, the things we cannot touch or control that make life worth living. And these values come from a God whom we cannot touch, yet who is utterly sovereign and powerful and loving. It is his presence and purpose in our lives that ought to be supremely important even though they remain unseen and intangible.
The apostle Peter described what makes a woman attractive in these words from his letter, "Your adornment must not be merely external braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God" (1 Peter 3:3-4). What God cares about is not the way we look, not the external, visible things. The human heart at its best level does not care about the way things appear. It is the unseen things that are supremely important.
If we will be men and women of faith, the challenge for us is to increasingly reject the values that are based only on tangible, visible, momentary things and choose, instead, a course in life which is informed by our hope in the future, by an invisible God who is with us every moment.
Hebrews 11:6 tells us what pleases God: "…without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." The beginning of a life of faith is a fairly simple thing. It does not require cleaning up your bad habits, years of study, or being born into the right family. The life of faith begins with two simple, fundamental requirements: recognition that God exists, and recognition that he is worth knowing; he rewards those who seek him, he answers their initiative. That is the starting point for the life of faith, for that which pleases God. We do not get it all at once. Faith is something that grows. It is begun simply and it becomes the way by which we please God, by which we learn to know what is valuable and what is not.
Now let us consider the five examples of that kind of faith that are given in the first 12 verses. Hebrews 11 is a short course in Old Testament history and theology, a magnificent march through many of the accounts of the Old Testament, each of which illustrates the importance of the life of faith. Five of these accounts are before us now. They are: the creation, the story of Cain and Abel, the stories of Enoch, of Noah, and of Abraham and Sarah.
The more I have considered these examples, the more convinced I am that what the author of Hebrews did–especially in these opening introductory discussions of Old Testament history–was raise five concerns of the human heart that are true for every one of us. He is making reference to questions that reverberate in every single human mind, when we allow them to do so. Christians and non-Christians alike call out for answers in these areas. What we learn here is that the life of faith–a life that trusts a living God, that is empowered by him and seeks him and follows him–is a life that answers the needs of all human hearts.
Take the story of creation. Hebrews 11:3 says, "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are invisible." The physical universe was called into place by the word of God. Prior to everything that is known in creation–the laws, the substance of the physical universe, etc.–prior to all those things was the triune God–immutable, invisible, eternal. His word created all that can be seen. The writer of Hebrews has stated several times throughout this book that the first things are the most Important things. The older things are superior to the newer things. So the invisible, eternal nature of God, which existed before anything physical existed, and spoke into being that which is visible, is pre-eminent.
Recently, the Nobel Prizes for 1986 were awarded to brilliant men and women in physics and chemistry and other scientific pursuits. Some of them have spent their lives investigating the remarkable properties of the tiny particles that make up atoms, how they interact with each other, etc. Rich and prestigious Nobel Prizes are given each year to those who discover what the visible world is like. But the Nobel Committee does not award a prize in godliness.
However, those who know God, those who have studied and learned of him, those who have walked with him and sensed his Spirit in their lives–they know the greatest truth. They know the One who is invisible and eternal and who preceded the created world. They have studied what is really worth knowing in life, and if anybody should be commended it is those who have grown in knowledge of God and obedience to him.
When the creation is mentioned, the question of origins, of purpose arises. The question, How did we become the way we are–is one of the most frequently asked of all questions. Christians and non-Christians alike want an answer to that. But it is only men and women with faith in God who arrive at answers to that gripping question of the heart. They know God and thus they come to understand their origins.
We find the second example presented in this list of the men of old who gained approval in Hebrews 11:4, in the story of Adam’s sons. Two brothers, Cain and Abel, interacted with the created world and each produced something as a result of his efforts. Each brought what he had produced to God, and God said to Abel, "I accept your sacrifice," but to Cain he said, "I reject yours" (cf Genesis 4:3-5). The difference, as we are told here in Hebrews (it is less apparent in Genesis), was that Abel produced his offering by faith and Cain did not. Cain set out on his own, by the strength of his own hand, apart from God, to do what he did, and his offering was rejected. But because Abel humbly trusted God in his work, his sacrifice was accepted. Abel had trusted the Lord for what he did and Cain had not.
In this story an issue is being raised that is important to everyone. We cannot escape it. The question is one of productiveness, of accomplishment. Everybody was born into this world having a desire to accomplish something. We all want to leave our mark, to have our lives amount to something. We are made in the image of our creative God. He is a master maker and producer and we, in his image, long to be productive ourselves. Cain and Abel did what God commanded of humanity, that they should go out and subdue the earth, giving it order and making it productive for them. They both did what they were made to do, except one of them did it by faith and one of them did it without reference to God at all. Eventually the one who had rejected God became a murderer, and lost his way.
The desire to be productive is natural to all of us. The choice we have to make is whether we will live by faith in our desire. What mark do you want to leave in life? One of the Greek philosophers said that before death everybody should write a book, build a house and father a child. Everybody ought to make a mark. Everybody ought to do something– work with their hands, with their minds, and interact with other human beings. God created us to have dominion over the world. We are creative because we are made in his image. Some would create works of art; others found businesses, or raise children, or serve in government. All of us, without having to try at all, have been given the inner longing to do something that is worth doing.
Abel trusted God and Cain did not. We have the same choice. Do we do all we are doing by the power and wisdom of God? Do we long for his approval, his presence? Do we reject the opportunities and the offers that would steer us away from him? The desire to be productive requires that we live by faith in carrying out those desires.
The first issue was origins, the second concerned productivity. Now, thirdly, in the case of Enoch, the question that arises concerns the longing for answers with regard to mortality, with birth and death. What is the purpose of human life? Why do things deteriorate and die? Here again, who has not at some point in his life wondered at the cycle of life and death? At the end of each year we usually see in cartoons the old year depicted in the form of a doddering old man, and the new year portrayed by a brand new baby born into the world. We always wonder at that cycle. We are told very little about Enoch in the Old Testament.
Consider this reference from Genesis:
Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:21-24)
Enoch walked with God and kept on walking and never died. He had discovered in his search for the answers about birth and death such an intimacy with God that the lord deemed it appropriate to continue the walk into eternity, without Enoch’s having to suffer physical death.
What began Enoch’s search, evidently, was the birth of his first son, which occurred when Enoch was sixty-five years old. Something in the birth of Methuselah made Enoch seek answers to the mysterious cycle of human life and death. Something about seeing his own son born into the world, and his realization that God had used him in the process of creating another human being, was instrumental in his seeking the living God. For the next three hundred years he talked with God, walked with him and learned of him and eventually went into his presence.
I have spoken with many fathers who were present at the birth of their children. Most count that experience as one of the most remarkable occasions they can remember. They were overwhelmed at the realization that they played a part in the birth of the next generation. Evidently some of those emotions motivated Enoch to become a seeker of an answer all of us want to know. What is the story of human mortality and why is it so? As a result of that, by faith, Enoch the seeker walked with God. His life is a stirring example of what it can mean to ask the natural human questions and find their answers in a relationship with the Lord.
The fourth of these Old Testament individuals who is brought before us is Noah. Noah lived in the most wicked generation mankind has ever known, so wicked that God regretted the fact that he had ever created human beings, and he determined to destroy that wickedness. But Noah was a righteous man. Peter called him "a preacher of righteousness." It was Noah’s life and Noah’s response to God that showed his contemporaries what they had become. It was Noah who made salvation possible for his family. It was Noah who condemned the sin of his generation, and it was Noah who shone as a beacon against wickedness in his world.
It is natural for Christians and non-Christians alike to hope for the eradication of evil, to long to be part of the fight against what is ugly and sinful in the world. The Saturday morning television cartoons for children have a panoply of beautiful, muscular heroes who fight against the despicably evil forces arrayed against them. Children love the idea that good should fight against evil and that good should triumph. There is something terrible about a degraded humanity and we ought to do something about it. That is a natural human desire.
Noah is given as an example of somebody who by faith engaged in the battle. By faith he shone as a beacon in his generation. By faith he had something to say to a wicked world. By faith he provided salvation for his family. By faith he became involved in standing against wickedness.
Such a life ought to be true of Christians. Evangelical Christians have probably recovered more willingness in the last ten or fifteen years to get involved in resisting wickedness in the world than had been the case for some generations. While not all of that involvement is wise or proper, much of it is. The sense that we can do something and say something and somehow stand against the trashing of human life and the exaltation of depravity is commendable. But it is not going to be proper if we leave God out of the process, if our values are only earthly, if we are doing it for our best interests. Unless we fight the battle by faith, we have lost everything that is worth fighting for. The desire is proper. The desire is universal. The question is, by what means do we seek to accomplish our ends?
The fifth illustration given us is the story of Abraham’s family. Abraham and Sarah departed a land where they were comfortable and went to an unknown place. Against all odds they trusted God for a family. By faith they began the process of finding a home, building a family, creating a community and putting down roots.
Again, we discover in the life of this family a human need that is universal. Everyone is born with a desire for a home, a desire to be part of a community of people who care about one another. Community, rootedness, home, family, shared life–we were made to long for those things. We cannot live without them, save in a stunted and deprived way. Christians and non-Christians alike long for what God gave Abraham and Sarah. Many of us, however, will seek to find rootedness, family and community and leave God out of the picture. If we do, we will fail.
It is by faith that Abraham and Sarah took off on their adventure. Ultimately they realized that, whatever they experienced along the way, what they really longed to have was "a city that had foundations whose architect and builder is God."
The same desire for a home is expressed in Psalm 107:
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary
And gathered from the lands, From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region;
They did not find a way to an inhabited city. They were hungry and thirsty;
Their soul fainted within them. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
He delivered them out of their distresses. He led them also by a straight way,
To go to an inhabited city. Let them give thanks to the LORD for
His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men!
For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good. (Psalm 107:1-9)
God has placed within us a desire to be part of a community. But he and he alone is the one who can meet that desire. Ultimately, in seeking it from him, we find that what we really want is his presence. The only inhabited city that is ultimately satisfying to us is the one that is not built in this world.
Let me review briefly. The creation account of the Bible answers our need to know about our origins and purpose. "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God."
What about productiveness? What about the question of dominion? It is by faith that Abel’s having dominion over the earth accomplished something. "He obtained the testimony," it says. He received the commendation that he was righteous, substantial. worth something.
What about the question of life and death and why we are subject to these things? In answering that question, Enoch sought God’s face. And he walked more and more with God so that he went past death.
What about the fight against evil, the desire to stand against human degradation? It was by faith that Noah spoke the word of God in his generation and was provided a means of salvation for his family.
What about a home, the desire of every heart to belong somewhere? Ultimately the home we are looking for is the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God himself.
We are all familiar with the phrase, "You bet your life." It is a way of giving a rather graphic affirmative in response to a question. The comedian Groucho Marx once named a zany television game show You Bet Your Life. In his hands it became a funny notion. But, as a matter of fact, betting your life is serious business. Every single one of us will bet our lives on something. We cannot escape doing so. We will bet our lives on the wisdom of our alma mater, the "mother of our soul," on the wisdom of the world, the financial page, on old wives’ tales, or something else.
Or we will bet our lives by faith on the authority, the power and the love of Jesus Christ. If we make that bet, if we begin trusting him, and are willing to face whatever life throws at us, having no values but his and no power but his, we become part of that extraordinary group of people that chapter Hebrews 11 exalts, people of whom it will finally be said, "the world is not worthy." Realizing that at some time–in some way–you are going to bet your life. I urge you to be men and women of faith.
Conclusion
Shortly before his death, Henri Nouwen wrote a book entitled Sabbatical Journeys. In it he tells about some people he knew who were trapeze artists, the Flying Roudellas. They explained to Nouwen that there is a special relationship between "flyer" and "catcher" on the trapeze. The flyer is the one who lets go, and the catcher is the one who snatches him from free fall.
As the flyer swings high above the crowd and ground below, that fateful instant comes when he must let go. He must release his grasp on the device that is bearing his full weight and arc out into the air. If it is exhilarating, it must also be terrifying! Then his job is to remain as still as possible and wait for the strong hands of the catcher to find him, pluck him from the air, and bring him to safety.
One of the Flying Roudellas told Nouwen: "The flyer must never try to catch the catcher." He must wait in absolute t
