new to you friday–a question
This post connected with many people, I think because it’s at odds with how so many of us have been taught to think about the Christian life.
Obedience, growth, faithfulness–these are hard, sacrificial things. So my follow-up question, a year after the original post, is the same: how can we read the Bible and expect an easy road?
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Noah was 600 years old when he began building the ark. After weeks of backbreaking work, he endured 370 days stuck in that airtight boat with an ornery family, hundreds of animals, and enough “fertilizer” for the rest of his grape-growing career.
Abraham waited a lifetime for God to keep the promise of a son, only to receive a command to murder that son in cold blood.
Joseph refused to have sex with Potiphar’s wife but still went to prison.
Moses put up with a million whiny Israelites for forty years.
Job lost everything because he had done nothing wrong.
Hosea faithfully loved an unfaithful wife and provided for the children of her affairs.
David ran for his life to escape a crazy king.
Jeremiah became the weeping prophet.
Daniel faced hungry lions.
Ezekiel watched his wife die, and was forbidden to mourn.
Mary quietly suffered disgrace and journeyed 70 miles on a donkey while nine months pregnant to give birth in a cave, alone and in pain and probably embarrassed, with no idea she wouldn’t get to return home to show the new baby to her mom.
Joseph endured the same scorn, the same journey, the same embarrassment, the same years running from Herod, and didn’t even get his own Hail Joseph prayer.
John the Baptist lost his head twice; before his beheading, despair and confusion led him to question if the man he followed was truly the Savior.
And Jesus, the Man of All Sorrows, “became obedient to death–even death on a cross.”
These are the giants of our faith. They are some of God’s “favorites.” Yet their journeys were difficult, messy, painful, unsanitary, anguished, dangerous, and unfair.
So if this is how God deals with his favored ones, why do we equate his blessing with safety, self-fulfillment, and air conditioning?
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Jennifer Taylor
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Oh Jen, you’ve got it! I’m so tired of the name-it-claim-it teaching because it is detrimental to a young Christian’s faith. How do you explain the disappointments, delays, denials, early deaths to someone who thinks God must not listen to them or love them as much as He loves others? Let me quote my favorite all-time person: “In this world you will have trouble…” I have received more blessings in this life than I deserve. But I no longer expect them–I appreciate them. And I appreciate your blog!!
So, I’m going to go out on limb here but I see this a bit differently. I think there is opportunity to focus on the Polyanna side of fix it and forget it faith all the way to the opposite side of the spectrum to the awful, dreadful lives these pilars of the bible lived. But I don’t think it’s about either extreme. I think it is about looking a layer deeper. That being said…
Noah-He built a boat when boats did not exist. He heard the voice of God so clearly that he followed directions unexplainable by all outward human understanding. He and His family were spared the death of drowning and given the task of repopulating the planet. Noah is a pilar because He listened. Do I listen like Noah listened? Too often the answer is no. Where would I be saved from drowning if I would just listen.
Abraham – Again with the listening. How often do we listen and hear God and say, “Nope. Not going to do it Your way.” Abraham had a choice with what He heard God ask him to do. God did not hold a gun to his head on the hike up the mountain that day. He told Abraham what He wanted Him to do and Abraham said, “Really? Did I hear you correctly? I’m pretty sure I misunderstood you.” No, the message was clear. God doesn’t ever tell us to not ask questions, but He does expect obedience. And He rewards faithfully when we do. He is a pilar because He knew He served a dynamic God.
Moses – I missed the part in the Bible where it says he “put up with them”. He may just as much joined them or he may have tried to mentor them or he may have spent his days praying for them. I think he organized them and carried on with it. So, I ask myself, what deserts am I living in because I am caught up in looking a shiny idol that is present and tangible when the true prize is not hand delivered upon my demand of God. Moses is the pilar because He loved those people inspite of themselves and because he did not ditch them when they made short sighted choices that crippled their entire life.
I suppose these are things we know. God is God and we are not. But are we listening? I don’t think so. He says move/go/stop/no/yes and we say are you sure? I think the pilars God gave us stories to read about are becasue He is telling us, some have done as I have asked and some have not, either way I work it out, but do you see, I want so much more for you, SO MUCH MORE?!
I appreciate your blog too, makes me think-think-think.
I wonder if Joel is misguided or if he is insincere. What do you think, misfeasance or malfeasance?
I think misguided. You?
That’s very gracious of you. His magnanimous grin keeps me suspicious. I think your blog hit at the heart of the matter either way.