Seedplots

Four lessons about times when our “work for God doesn’t go according to plan”

In Parts 1-3 of David’s story from 1 Samuel 27-30 we considered the first three lessons his example illustrates about times when our “work for God doesn’t go according to plan.”

We noted that in such times discouragement is normal.  We also saw how discouragement makes us vulnerable to Satan’s temptation and yet, God’s work goes forward even when we are paralyzed by discouragement and unbelief. 

God is not taken by surprise. His work goes forward, not because of us, but in spite of us.

Lesson 4 – God knows how to restore a discouraged Christian worker and make him or her useful again!

Finally, David’s experience illustrates what is probably the most important of these four lessons – God knows how to restore a discouraged Christian worker and make him or her useful again.

In David’s case, this involved three specific interventions on God’s part.

a) God kept David from an even greater evil
David’s story continues in 1 Samuel 28. David’s deception has led him into a trap. He is asked to fight against God’s people. A lot more is at stake here than is immediately apparent.  David is stuck.

If he refuses to fight against his own people, he is exposed as a traitor.  If he enters the battle on the side of the Philistines, he has disqualified himself as future King of Israel. His whole future ministry as king is at stake. And there is no easy way out of the trap.

God, mercifully, rescues David from this situation. From start to finish, this rescue is God’s doing. The story is recorded in 1 Samuel 29:1-10.

God can do the same with his servants today.  At this point, the story begins to encourage us. The God of hope can still rescue his servants from difficult situations caused by their unbelief and sin.

b) God woke David up from his spiritual paralysis
Just like an unexpected splash of cold water in the face wakes up a drowsy person, God wakes up David from his spiritual paralysis.  He does this by sending an unexpected crisis into his life.  This crisis is recorded in 1 Samuel 30:1-6.

The 90 km walk back to Ziklag, after being unexpectedly rescued by God from fighting the Israelites, takes David and his men three days (vs.. 1). When they arrive home, they find their city looted and burned and their wives, children and livestock gone.

The shock is devastating. They cry till “they had no strength left to weep” (vs.. 4). Then the men in their “great distress” and “bitterness’ turn on David and “talk of stoning him” (vs. 6).

This ends up being a gift from God, for the shock wakes David up from his spiritual stupor. He turns back to God. “David found strength in the Lord his God” (vs. 6).

Suddenly God re-enters the story. David once again starts prays and seeking help from God (vs. 7-8).

c) God turned things around and put David on the throne
Amazingly, God puts the pieces together and in the space of weeks, David not only rescues the captured women and children, but ends up on the throne in Hebron! The training period is over – God’s time for David had finally come.

Conclusion

May David’s example turn our focus to the God who gives endurance and encouragement (Romans 15:5). May the God of hope, fill us “with all joy and peace as we trust in him” (Romans 15:13). May we too “overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Four lessons about times when our “work for God doesn’t go according to plan”

In Parts 1-2 of David’s story from 1 Samuel 27-30 we considered the first two lessons his example illustrates about times when our “work for God doesn’t go according to plan.”   We noted that in such times discouragement is normal.  We also saw how discouragement makes us vulnerable to Satan’s temptation.  David gave in to temptation, forgot God’s promises, lost hope that God would work, and ended up living like an unbeliever.   Yesterday’s posting ended on a negative note.  At this point we take up the story again.

Lesson 3 – God’s work goes forward even when we are paralyzed by discouragement and unbelief

It might be good to pause here, take a step backward and look at the third lesson illustrated by this story.  When we do, we begin to see things from God’s perspective.   God’s work was not “put on hold” because of David’s fall into sin.  God’s work went forward even though David’s was paralyzed by discouragement and unbelief.

In our discouragement, it is easy to begin thinking God’s work depends on us.  Remember Elijah?  To paraphrase his words, he told God in his discouragement,

“I have been very zealous for God’s work, but now even I have not succeeded. No one’s left. Your project has failed, God.” (1 Kings 19:14-18)

God told him, in effect,

Not so. My work goes forward. What you started will be continued by Elisha, Jehu and Hazael. I know what I’m doing. And you’re not the only one. I have 7000 others you know nothing about that are serving me.

When David fled to Philistine territory God’s work went forward.   God used the 16 months David was in Ziklag to continue preparing David to be king.

• David learned lessons about the enemy he would later fight
• David learned new lessons about how to organize a kingdom (from the more advanced civilization and government structures present among the Philistines)
• David, when he lived in enemy territory fought against the Amalekites, enemies of God’s people.

The same thing happens when we are paralyzed by discouragement, doubt and unbelief. God is not taken by surprise. His work goes forward, not because of us, but in spite of us.

Four lessons about times when our “work for God doesn’t go according to plan”

David’s experience, recorded in 1 Samuel 27-30 can give us hope when “work for God doesn’t go according to plan.”

Paul tells us in Romans 15 that these Old Testament stories are written,

“To teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4)

They give us hope because they point us to the “God of hope” and encourage us to keep on trusting God even when things don’t go “according to plan.”

In Part 1 (yesterday’s posting) of David’s story from 1 Samuel 27-30 we considered the first lesson his example illustrates about times when our “work for God doesn’t go according to plan.”  We noted that in such times discouragement is normal. 

Today’s posting draws a second lesson from David’s experience.  If things haven’t gone “according to plan” in your work for God, don’t be too hard on yourself. But pay attention to the second lesson.

Lesson 2 – Discouragement makes us vulnerable to temptation

The second lesson David’s experience illustrates is that discouragement makes us vulnerable to temptation.

I think this happened to David. In his discouragement, Satan tempted him to give up and David did.

Leaders of God’s people, in their discouragement, are tempted to forget God’s promises, to lose hope that God will work, and to neglect their calling.

a) Temptation to forget God’s promises
David had been promised by God that he would be king (chapter 16).  This promise was confirmed multiple times – by Jonathan (23:16-17), by Abigail (25:28,30) and even by Saul himself (24:21, 26:25). But David lost sight of God’s promises. He stopped believing them.  This is unbelief and unbelief is sin.

b) Temptation to lose hope in God
Do you still expect God to work through you as you lead his people?  or have you lost that hope?  When we are discouraged, Satan tempts us to lose hope in God.  David gave in to this temptation.  He had given up hope that God would protect him.  That much is pretty clear from 1 Samuel 27:1.  When we lose hold in God, we take things into our own hands – and end up with even greater problems.

This sense of hopelessness is common in the accounts of Biblical characters. Another example that comes to mind is Sarah, Abraham’s wife. She tells her husband,

The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her (Genesis 16:2)

Her language is amazingly similar to David’s isn’t it? El Shadai, God Almighty, had promised Sarah and Abraham a son. But Sarah had lost hope that God would keep his promise and work on her behalf. She took things into her own hands, like David, and the result was a disaster.

c) Temptation to neglect our calling
When we give in to Satan’s temptation, lose hope in God, and take things into our own hands, almost inevitably we end up neglecting our calling.

David, as God’s anointed one, was supposed to be protecting God’s people from the Philistines (cf. 1 Sam. 9:15 “anoint him leader over my people Israel; he will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines”).  David had done this. In Chapter 22 David and his men saved the city of Keilah from the Philistines.

But now, instead of fighting the Philistines, David is living with them. He calls himself the “servant” of the King of Gath (see 1 Sam 27:5, 12, 28:2). Amazing when we remember that Gath was Goliath’s home town!

How different David is in this chapter. No prayers, no zeal for God’s glory, no more Psalms. David is acts like an unbeliever. He depends on lies and deception, even the murder of women and children to protect himself (1 Sam 27:8-12). Satan has used discouragement to lead David away from God and away from his calling.

Part 3 of this posting will appear tomorrow . . .

Four lessons about times when our “work for God doesn’t go according to plan”

The story of David is found in 1st and 2nd Samuel.  God selects David to be king over his people in 1 Samuel 16.  He doesn’t actually become king till 2 Samuel, some 15 years later.  In between, God puts David in his leadership training school.

By the time we get to 1 Samuel 27, David’s training is almost finished. He has passed two of his exams with flying colors (chapters 24, 26). Something unexpected happens, however near the end of his schooling.

David’s experience is the subject of today’s (Part 1) and tomorrow’s posting (Part 2). 

David’s experience, recorded in 1 Samuel 27-30 can give us hope when “work for God doesn’t go according to plan.” Paul tells us in Romans 15 that these Old Testament stories are written,

“To teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4)

They give us hope because they point us to the “God of hope” and encourage us to keep on trusting God even when things don’t go “according to plan.”

David’s discouragement
Take a look with me at the context of 1 Samuel 27.  When the chapter opens, David is on the run. Saul is “hot on his heels.” He’d been running from King Saul for a long time (probably more than 10 years).

Saul is getting closer and closer.  There aren’t many places left to hid. For many years, God has protected David, though often God waited till the last moment to step in and rescue him.  David, at this point, is tired of running and tired of hiding.

And David is not alone. His wives and children are with him. He’s leading a small army of 600 men.  Many of them have their families with them. It’s not easy to hid with a crowd like that, let alone find food and water for everyone in the wilderness.

David is ready to get away from this pressure.  Things haven’t “gone according to plan.”  Well, not according to David’s plan. How much easier life would be living in a town.  Imagine going down to the local well for water and the local market to buy food. Imagine living in a house, with a yard and a garden, David tells himself.  At this point, we break into the story.

David’s actions
In Old Testament literature, we are often left to ourselves to judge whether a person’s actions are good or bad, right or wrong.  This is the case in 1 Samuel 27:1-2,

“But David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.” So David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish son of Maoch king of Gath.”

Were David’s actions right or wrong?

They worked — the next verse tells us “When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.” But were they right?

The text gives us subtle hints that David’s actions were not pleasing to God.  Notice David’s reasoning,

• · “David thought to himself“
• · “I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul”
• · “The best thing I can do is escape”
• · “I will slip out of his hand”

Not a word here about prayer.  Even though David had in his group the priest with a means of determining God’s will.  In fact, there’s no reference to God at all during this 16  month period of David’s life.

This is David’s plan, not God’s. David has grown discouraged and he’s tired of constantly having to trust God to deliver him from Saul.

Lesson 1 – Discouragement is normal

While the primary intent of this passage is not to teach us about discouragement, it does illustrate lessons we would do well to heed.  The first one is staring us right in the face.  It can be expressed this way:  Work for God that “doesn’t go according to plan” causes discouragement.

That’s normal.

Those who lead God’s people usually begin serving God with plans and hopes. Over time, if things don’t go “according to plan” our hope begins to slip away. Eventually we lose hope altogether, and discouragement sets in.

It appears that happened to David. It happens to us too. That’s normal.  Discouragement is not sin.

Proverbs 13:12 tells us, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” The word deferred used in the original means to ” extend, protract, delay, drag out” (NIDOTTE).

Realizing “deferred hope” (= work that doesn’t go according to plan) makes the heart sick (= discouraged) is a normal human emotion can help us not be too hard on ourselves when we are discouraged.   Look at some of the “heroes” of Scripture:

• Abraham was discouraged.  In Genesis 15:1-2, he told God, “What good are your gifts… you’ve not given me a child!”
• Moses was discouraged.  In Exodus 5:22-23, he said, “Why did you send me? You’ve done nothing at all to save your people.”
• Elijah was discouraged, so discouraged he wanted to commit suicide. In 1 Kings 19:3-4, he told God, “I have had enough, Lord, take my life. I am no better than my ancestors.”

If things haven’t gone “according to plan” in your work for God, don’t be too hard on yourself. But pay attention to the second lesson.

Part 2 of this posting will appear tomorrow . . .

It’s amazing whom God calls to work with him in carrying out His mission.

A simple list of the key people in the history of redemption in Scripture highlights what I’m talking about… Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, John the Baptist…

Who would have guessed, early on, what God would do in and through these people?

Abraham – His father worshiped idols and Abram grew up in a city devoted to the worship of Nanna, the moon god.  Abram’s wife was barren. When Abraham was 99, his wife still had not given birth to the promised descendant.

Moses – At birth his parents were forced to abandon him.  He was raised in a palace – an environment where the exaltation of other gods, especially the sun gods (Osiris, Isis, Ra (Re) and Horus) was all pervasive. Yahweh, and his people (”the Hebrews”) were despised slaves.

Samuel – His mother was barren, with no prospect of having children.  Samuel grew up, without parents,  living in the worship center of Israel – a place where the leading priests had no fear of God, openly stole from the worshippers and shamelessly practiced immorality with employees of the religious establishment.

David – His great grandmother was Ruth, a poor widow from Moab.  The Torah blocked Moabites from entering “the assembly of the Lord” down to the tenth generation.

John the Baptist – the forerunner of Jesus and the greatest prophet was born to an old, barren woman and a old priest who failed to believe the angel’s good news of God’s gift of a son.

What each of these unlikely candidates for serving God share in common is the fact that God called them to serve him.  With that call came God’s sovereign preparation and God’s equipping for the task at hand.  Paul, another unlikely candidate for God’s service, was keenly aware of this.  God, he said,

“Had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace.” That same God was the one who “was pleased to reveal his Son to me in order that I might preach him among the nations.

Reflecting on whom God choose and called to serve him encourages me.  He doesn’t call (both to salvation and to service) only those who are wise according to worldly standards, those who are powerful, and those who are of noble birth. Instead God chose and called,

What is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;  God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not… so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (1 Cor 1:26-29).

This is, as Dale Ralph Davis, notes, “vintage Yahweh,”

God’s tendency is to make our total inability his starting point. Our hopelessness and our helplessness are no barrier to his work.  We are facing one of the principles of Yahweh’s modus operandi. When his people are without strength, without resources, without hope, without human gimmicks – then he loves to stretch forth his hand from heaven (1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart).

Encouraging, isn’t it.  Maybe God can use us in his service!

We all know the story of David and Goliath. It’s recorded for us in 1 Samuel 17. Chapter 18 describes what happened next. David, most likely still a teenage, is suddenly a hero. He is invited (perhaps it would be more accurate to say “required” 1 Sam 18:2) to relocate to King Saul’s headquarters.

As the chapter progresses, David’s popularity and fame steadily increase (cf. verse 5, verse 7, verses 13-16, verses 26-27, verse 30).

At the same time, King Saul’s attitude toward David flip flops from love (verse 1), to irritation, anger and jealousy (verses 8-9), to fear (verses 12, 28-29) and finally to hatred (verse 29).

This is not a simple case of jealousy. There are spiritual forces at work behind the scenes. Saul acts this way, the narrator tells us, because he realizes that “the Lord is with David” (verse 28). God’s empowering Spirit has left King Saul and Saul knows it. He is now at the mercy of an evil spirit that torments him and fans into flames his irrational hatred toward David.

In chapter 19, King Saul’s animosity explodes. He gives up trying to hid his hatred of David and openly orders him killed (1 Samuel 19:1). Chapter 19 records a “whole chain of deliberate plans to wipe out David” (Davis, 1 Samuel:  Looking on the Heart, pg. 197).

The reader is led to ask, “How can this teenager survive is such a situation?” The answer is instructive.

David, humanly speaking can’t survive, but God steps in and delivers him.  1 Samuel 19 records four such deliverance episodes (vv 1-7, 8-10, 11-17, 18-24). God counters every attempt of King Saul to destroy his servant David.

The message of chapter 19 should be clear: Yahweh repeatedly protected his servant… Sometimes he uses human instruments (a Jonathan or a Michal) to provide such protection, but sometimes he bypasses them (e.g., Samuel) in order to make clear that “salvation is from the Lord”… As we take in the sweep of the whole chapter note how diverse Yahweh’s protection is.  The means and methods of deliverance reflect the imagination of the Deliverer (Davis).

In these episodes, David may not even have known that God was protecting him. That became clear only upon later reflection.  Davis,  in his wonderful commentary on 1 Samuel, notes,

Sometimes the clearest evidence that God has not deserted you is not that you are successfully past your trial but that you are still on your feet in the middle of it.

I find this narrative wonderfully encouraging. As we walk with God and serve him he takes care of us. Psalm 34, written by David while on the run from Saul, extends this truth to every who “fears God”:  The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them (Ps 34:7).

The one who watches over us is none other than the One who possess all authority, in heaven and on earth.  He has promised to “be with us always, even to the end of the age.”

In his outstanding reference book on Old Testament Theology, Bruce Waltke draws attention to the striking parallels and contrasts between Samson and Samuel.

Both men are raised up by God to deliver his people.

Samson’s mother, Manaoh, is barren as is Samuel’s mother, Hannah.  Their sons come only after divine intervention.

In Samson’s case, his mother is cynical and God sends an angel to convince her.  In Samuel’s case, his mother is godly and receives her son through prayer.

After their birth, Hannah expresses her joy through a wonderful hymn of praise to God.  No words of praise are recorded for Manaoh.

Both sons are dedicated to God at birth.  Samson resents this and rebels against his Nazirite consecration to God.  Samuel embraces his consecration to God and serves God faithfully.

Samson delivers the nation from the Philistines through acts of violence.  Samuel delivers the nation from the Philistines through prayer (1 Sam 7, cf. 12:23).

Samson’s efforts at uniting and delivering the nation succeed only in postponing defeat. Samuel’s ministry ultimately transforms the nation from victims to victors, and he anoints David as God’s chosen king.  Ultimately his ministry laid the foundation for the promise of great King, the “Son of David” in 2 Samuel 7.

I’m struck by the mother’s role in both cases.  Hannah, Samuel’s mother, was a woman of God who prayed.  Samuel, the one “asked of God” became a man who led the nation by prayer.  Manaoh doesn’t appear to have been a godly woman and her son, Samson, “served God” in a godless way.  God’s work goes forward God’s way – by prayer.

Lots of lessons here!  I don’t think the parallels are in the text by accident – they’re meant to teach us something.

David’s experience with God, shared in this Psalm, serves as a powerful message even today, 3000 years later.  The center of these two verses is the phrase, “those who know your name put their trust in you.” The crucial factor is “knowing God’s name.”  Either a person knows God’s name or he doesn’t.  Those who do trust him, those who don’t do not trust him.  “Knowing” in the context means “knowing through experience.”  God’s “name” refers to his character.

Coming to know God’s name in Egypt
Exodus 5-15 vividly displays the difference.  Several groups appear – Moses, Pharaoh, the people of Israel, the people of Egypt and by extension, the surrounding “nations.” Moses had come to “know God’s name” through personal experience.  This culminated in his experience with God described in Exodus 33, when God showed him his glory (¹⁹And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name).

Pharaoh didn’t “know” God’s name.  He mockingly asked Moses, ²“Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”).  God arranged for Pharaoh to come to “know” by experience just who the Lord was.  One by one the ten plagues were sent so that Pharaoh might “know that there is none like me [i.e. the Lord] in all the earth” (Exodus 9:14).  In the end he confessed, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods” (Exodus 18:11).

The people of Egypt also came to know about Israel’s God through the plagues and the Exodus (Exodus 7:5).  The ten plagues exposed the powerlessness of the gods the Egyptians trusted in.   Israel, God’s people, came to know the Lord as their Deliverer, through the same events (Exodus 6:7).

David’s experience with God
David initially came to know “God’s name” while serving as a shepherd.  This gave him the confidence to trust in God when Goliath mocked the people of God.  When they met on the field of battle, David told Goliath,  “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand… that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” Further experiences with God brought David into a deeper knowledge of God’s name.  From this background, David, writing under the inspiration of God, declares to us, “those who know your name put their trust in you.”

A challenge to trust God ourselves
We, who have experienced God’s help in times of trouble and have come to know his name, are encouraged to trust him as new troubles surround us.   He is a “stronghold” in times of trouble, verse 9 tells us.  The word “stronghold” literally means an inaccessible, secure place high up in the rim-rock of the mountains, a place of safety and security one can go to in times of danger.

We are encouraged to trust God in new times of difficulty because we have experienced his help in the past and have come to know him as a “stronghold,” a place of security and safety in difficult times.

The Bible is a marvelous book. God’s message to us is right there, plainly visible on the surface of its stories, letters and written down sermons. As we read it or hear it read, we see God in action, working to bring glory to himself and salvation to the nations and to individuals.

When one gets below the surface of the text and digs down deeper, the wonderful structure and fabric of the Bible begins to emerge. The interconnecting themes that hold the Bible together are amazing.

When we follow them forward, or backward, they all end up at the same place – Jesus.

This week I studied in more detail 1 Samuel 1-2. The books of Samuel are important because they introduce kingship, David the model king, and the promise of a great king, the son of David, whose rule will be eternal. The stage is being set for the kingdom of God and the coming of Jesus, the true King.

What struck me was how this all began with crisis and prayer. Crisis in the nation and crisis in one woman’s life. A cry of desperation to God for a king, and a cry of desperation from a hurting woman for a child.

That should encourage us in our context and our need, shouldn’t it? God is a God who hears prayer and acts. When he acts, his mission goes forward … in spite of desperate circumstances.

In fact, we could almost say because of desperate circumstances God’s mission goes forward.  Those circumstances and our need drive us to God in prayer.  And then, and only then, God begins to act.

Yesterday I thought back over the sequence of events, some of them very small and seemingly insignificant, that led to my being in the Balkans today.

Were those “turning points” that led, years later, to my making the choices that I did, accidental?  or were they “God arranged”?

An interesting narrative in Scripture answers this question.  It is tucked away in the Biblical story of Saul and the lost donkeys (1 Samuel 9).

In a remote region of Palestine, a well to do farmer discovers his donkeys “were lost”  (verse 3).  In that day and age, that was not a trivial thing.  Davis comments,

They constituted a significant chunk of Kish’s wealth and prosperity.  It would be akin to an urban reader missing several paychecks, or a farmer losing his … pickup (1 Samuel:  Looking on the Heart).

Kish sends his son and servant out to search for the lost donkeys.  They searched far and wide in that hilly countryside, but the donkeys were nowhere to be found.   The son, Saul, decides to give up the search and return home (verse 5).

A string of seemingly insignificant events unfolds – the servant “happens to know” there is a prophet in a nearby city and suggests they ask him about the lost donkeys (verse 6), they “happen” to have an appropriate coin the given the prophet (verse 8), the prophet’s traveling schedule just “happened” to put him in that city on the day Saul and the servant arrived (verses 12-14).  They “happened” to meet the prophet (Samuel) as they entered the gate of the city. On and on the string of insignificant events unfold.  Events that eventually lead to Samuel anointing Saul as the leader of the entire nation, the first king of Israel.

Was this an accident?  Or did God “arrange” these events.  The text tells us – in a paragraph that is inserted right into the middle of the narrative -  verses 15-17.   There we are told that the day before all this happened, Yahweh spoke to the prophet and told him,

Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, ?and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people…” (verse 16).

No, Samuel and Saul did not meet by accident.  God sent Saul to the prophet.  What an amazing statement.  This string of insignificant events was arranged by God to send the man who would save Israel to the prophet who anointed him as the “leader-to-be.”

Outwardly, it all looked so ordinary, so casual.  Behind the scenes was God himself, planning, arranging, and guiding these two men.  Theologians call this the providence of God.

But what about us?  Does God do this in our lives?  or only in the lives of Bible heroes?   Scripture answers, “Man’s steps are ordained by the Lord, How then can man understand his way?” (NASB).

“steps” represent (by implied comparison) the course of life… To say that one’s steps are ordained by the Lord means that one’s course of actions, one’s whole life, is divinely prepared and sovereignly superintended (e.g., Gen 50:26; Prov 3:6). Ironically, man is not actually in control of his own steps. (NET Bible notes)

Think about that!  Almighty God guiding the ordinary events of your life, ordering and arranging them.  And there is a purpose behind that providence — your good (if you love God – Romans 8:28), and the advancement of God’s purposes in history, his “mission” (…He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines 1 Samuel 9:16).

I follow the postings on a good number of web sites daily, using Google Reader.  Along the way, I learn new things and am often challenged and encouraged.  This posting, by John Piper on the www.desiringgod.org website encouraged me.  I share it with you…

2 Stages of God’s Care for Us: Fettered and Freed

In this age, God rescues his people from some harm. Not all harm. That’s comforting to know, because otherwise we might conclude from our harm that he has forgotten us or rejected us.

So be encouraged by the simple reminder that in Acts 16:19-24 Paul and Silas were not delivered, but in verses 25-26 they were.

First, no deliverance:

• “They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace.” (v. 19)
• “The magistrates tore the garments off them.” (v. 22)
• They “inflicted many blows upon them.” (v. 23)
• The jailer “fastened their feet in the stocks.” (v. 24)

But then deliverance:

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God…and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. (v. 25-26)

God could have stepped in sooner. He didn’t. He has his reasons. He loves Paul and Silas.

Question for you: If you plot your life along this continuum, where are you? Are you in the stripped and beaten stage, or the unshackled, door-flung-open stage?

Both are God’s stages of care for you.

If you are in the fettered stage, don’t despair. Sing. Freedom is on the way. It is only a matter of time. Even if it comes through death.

Here’s the original link.

Life
C.S. Lewis, in his classic  The Chronicles of Narnia series, provides an unforgettable description of the creation of Narnia.  It is, I suppose, his imaginative understanding of Genesis 1.

What makes it unforgettable is the overwhelming presence of life – everything grows and multiplies at an astounding pace.  This is precisely the picture in Genesis 1.  God speaks living things into existence, blesses them and they begin multiplying (vs 11, 20, 24, 26, 28).

The world simply teems with life.  In chapter 2 God breathed into man’s “nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (vs 7).  He planted in the midst of the garden “the tree of life” (vs 9).

Life vs. Death
In chapter 2, this emphasis on life is set in sharp contrast to death,

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (vs 16-17)

Life, the author reminds us, comes from God.  Death comes from disobeying God.  The choice is given to man – life or death, living God’s way, or one’s own way.

Death
Adam and Eve chose their own way, and suffered the consequences – consequences that affected not only them, but their children.  Whereas Adam had been “made in God’s likeness” (Genesis 5:1), the children he fathered were in his own fallen likeness, “after his own image” (vs 3).

The depressing consequences are highlighted in Genesis 5.  Notice the author’s pattern:

xxx lived xxx years, fathered xxx, had other sons and daughters.  Thus xxx lived xxxx years, and he died.

This pattern doesn’t occur in Genesis 11, where another major genealogy occurs.   The difference is in the little phrase “and he died.” Why is it added here in Genesis 5?

Walking with God
Apparently to highlight the one exception to the depressing pattern – Enoch.  Unlike all the others in the list, Enoch’s time on earth ended differently – “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (vs 24).

We are told by contemporary artists, “Not matter how hard you try, life is hard, then you die.” Yes, that’s true.  Because of the garden and Adam and Eve’s decision to go their own way, that’s the way it is.

But there is a way out of this depressing cycle.  Enoch’s way.  The author of Genesis wants us to understand one thing – Enoch “walked with God” and instead of dying, he lived.

Important choices, turning points in our lives, often pop up unexpectedly and shape the course of our lives in radical ways.  Both Abram and Lot faced such choices.

The God Almighty appeared to Abram, seemingly out of the blue, and told him to “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” (Gen 12:1).  Abram was living in one of the world’s commercial centers.  He was surrounded by family, and enjoying stability, prosperity and a bright future.  Leave it, God said, and go.   And he “went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).

Lot, his nephew, also faced a choice.  His uncle asked him to choose, “So Abram said to Lot, ‘Please let there be no strife between you and me.. Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left’ “ (Genesis 13:8-9).   By all rights, Abram should have decided.  He was the older uncle, Lot’s provider and protector.  But Abram acted with graciousness and generosity.  And Lot took advantage of his uncle.   “Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere…  So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan” (Genesis 13:10-11).

In Scripture, Lot’s foolish, self-centered choice is contrasted with Abram’s God-centered choice.  Abram made his choice with an eye to the future.  The book of Hebrews tells us that Abram’s choice was a step of faith.  He lived in tents, as a alien, “looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb 11:10).   Lot’s choice was more worldly wise.  He criteria for choosing was different.  He looked at which option promised success, prosperity and a comfortable life.  There was one glaring problem with Lot’s reasoning.  His choice required that him to live among wicked, ungodly people.  Scripture calls them “great sinners against the Lord.”

So what was the result?  Because of his choice of faith, Abram became a “friend of God.” Of the many ways God blessed Abram, I think this was the greatest.  He became the “father” of the people of God and his seed was none other than Jesus himself.  Lot?  His life is a tragedy.  Look at the consequences of his decision:

1.  He lost his “spiritual” bearings
Living in this ungodly setting his soul was corrupted.  Peter tells us he ended up “greatly distressed … tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard”

2.  He lost his way
Instead of being successful, as he expected, Lot ended up in trouble – a prisoner of an invading army.  He had to be rescued by the very uncle whom he had failed to treat with respect.  Had not Abram intervened, at great risk to himself, his household, and his “business” Lot would have lost everything.

3.  He lost his family
Instead of influencing those among whom Lot lived, the ungodly people around him influenced his family. His daughters were pledged to be married to unbelievers.  When Lot was told to flee Sodom, he was told to “bring with your son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters” they thought he was jesting.”  Only his daughters followed him out of the city.  He had lost his moral and spiritual authority.  His wife too had been affected by life in that environment and was loathe to live it behind.  She ended up losing her life in the judgment.

4. He lost his reputation
Lot’s end was tragic.  His business success, the motivation for his initial choice, collapsed overnight.  Lot lost everything.  He ended up in a lonely man living in a cave with his two daughters.  He ended up the father of two nations, conceived as a result of incest with his daughters.  Two peoples that were bitter enemies of the people of God.

Our choices are important.  The consequences of our choices are often more far-reaching than we can imagine.  God, give us the grace to make wise choices, and remember that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”