Risky Business: Part 2
Last week we started talking about how our need for “sureness” often collides with a God who can ask us to take incredible risks at times. I told you I wanted to highlight three instances I had found where this collision occurred. We started with a story about Moses that taught us that the proof we want of our success often comes after we act on God’s word and character.
Our second story actually ties in to Moses’ encounter with God. When Moses asks God who he is, one of God’s responses is, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” By saying that, he was telling Moses, “If you want to know who I am and how I work, remember the stories of these guys.” That’s exactly where the scene of our second collision takes us, to the story of Abraham and Isaac.
Abraham was far from perfect, but he’s remembered for his faith. For whatever reason, God chose to engage Abraham and promised to make him the beginning of a great nation. Of course, this was ridiculous because Abe and his wife physically could not have kids. Decades later, (and after many bad decisions on Abraham’s part) God made good on his promise and gave Abe one child: a son named Isaac. Beautiful story, right? And they lived happily ever after, a good time was had by all, so on and so forth. Not quite. One day out of nowhere, God interrupts Abe and Isaac’s game of catch. He says, “Hey Abe, like this kid I gave you? I can see how much he means to you…. Soooo, I’m gonna want you to kill him.” What?!
The Bible doesn’t tell us if Abraham says anything back, but you can imagine his jaw dropping when he hears this. It doesn’t make any sense. God had singled Abraham out of the population of the earth to be his friend. Why would a friend tell another friend to kill their child. And further, God said that he would give Abraham tons of descendants through Sarah. At this point, it had been a little over 25 years since that promise and Abraham is finally seeing that promise fulfilled. The vision God gave Abraham hinged on Isaac having children to continue Abraham’s legacy. God wanted to snuff that out before Isaac even got married?! Abe probably had questions like these swirling around in his head, but here’s what steadies him: he had gotten to know God’s character enough to know that this story had to end well. So he does what God asked him.
He sets out with Isaac, two servants, and goes to a mountain God had instructed him to go to. The entire trip, Abraham watches Isaac walk ahead and is probably trying to figure out how this is all going to go down. Not having the answer doesn’t turn him around or stop him from continuing on. When they near the mountain, Abe turns to his servants and tells them this statement of his faith, “You stay here. The rest of this journey is for me and my son. We will both come back after we have worshiped the Lord.” He gives Isaac the wood and he carries the knife: the killing instrument. Somewhere in their ascent up the mountain, Isaac makes a discovery. “We don’t have a lamb to sacrifice,” he tells his dad. Abe says, “Don’t worry, son. God will provide.”
They arrive at the top and Abraham sets up the altar. Then he ties up Isaac. At this point, the lights probably go on for Isaac, but he let’s his dad lay him down on the altar and says nothing. Both men, knowing that these are the final moments of Isaac’s life, do not complain, bargain, or seek a way out. Abe knows what God had told him to do, sets his will on it, grits his teeth, and raises the knife.
At that moment an angel appears and stops him. Abraham, both bewildered and relieved, looks around and sees that God has provided a ram to sacrifice instead of his son. This is the part that I love. The teller of this story stops right there and explains, “And that is why they say, ‘On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided’.” That statement tells us that Abe and Isaac’s story spread, and so did a truth about walking with God. Sometimes it requires you to act out of trust in the character of God, even when you don’t have the answers to some very important questions. The thing that you need the most will often only be provided after you’ve shown your resolution to trust God even when he doesn’t make sense. God sees that Abraham loves him and believes in him this much, and his affection gushes out over Abe. He is so emotionally moved that he can’t hold back. Twice, he explains that it is because Abraham was willing to sacrifice his own son that he will make him great on the earth and a blessing to everyone. As history unfolds, we come to understand fully why God asked Abraham to do this unthinkable thing and why it meant so much to God when Abraham obeyed. Abraham couldn’t have known it, but thousands of years later God would lead his son, Jesus, up on a mountain, lay him down on an altar and sacrifice him, because it was the only way that he could make a sacrifice big enough to atone for the sins of everyone who ever lived. We can see that the thought of doing this was already breaking God’s heart and he just wanted to share that with his good friend, Abraham.
So when you are bewildered by something God has asked you to do or just can’t see how it’s going to work out, remember three things:
- Your story is bigger than you. After you make it through a difficult time, you are going to have something to tell people, and they will talk about it.
- When you don’t have the answers, act out of trust in the character of God. You will find that as you prove your resolve to trust him, he will provide what you need the most.
- God wants you to know him as a person. The only way to know someone is to experience life with them. Life isn’t just laughter and good feelings. Heartache, anger, sorrow, rejection, and loss are a big part of life, and God knows them very well. Sometimes God doesn’t want to teach you a lesson or make everything work out okay in that circumstance. Sometimes he just wants you to know him a little bit better. Maybe the profound answer you are looking for in a difficult or confusing situation is just that God feels that way too. It’s wonderful to share in someone’s joy, but it’s an deep honor to share in their sorrow.
We’ll be leaving the country on Sunday, but I’ll try to post our last “collision” before then, so stay tuned. Here’s a hint, it also ties in with Moses. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you think about this story. What have you learned about who God is through your painful and confusing experiences in life?
Risky Business: Part 1
I would hazard a guess that you and I approach our big decisions in the same way. We protect ourselves from failure by attaining the knowledge and resources we need before acting. We want to be sure of the outcome before we take the risk. It gives us control. Anybody with a hint of common sense would make their decisions that way. Go with that method and it’s all fine and dandy, until you factor in a God who seems to be a little reckless with the risks he asks us to take at times. Then what do you do?
My wife and I have been reading through the stories of the Old Testament recently and have stumbled across a recurring collision between this ingrained need for “sureness” and the activity of God in our lives. I want to highlight three of those collisions. One of them is actually sort of humorous. Let’s start with that one.
Most people are at least a little familiar with the story of Moses. If you’re not, check out the first chapters of the book of Exodus. We’re catching up with him after he’s fled Egypt, where the Hebrews were slaves, and is living comfortably as a shepherd in the land of Midian. At this point Moses probably thinks he’s done with Egypt and isn’t planning to visit again. Then one day, he’s out watching the sheep and sees a bush that’s on fire, but is not burning up. He gets closer, and the God that Abraham knew starts talking to him.
He tells him, “My heart is moved for my people. I haven’t forgotten them. I want to set them free and guess what, I want you to be my representative to Pharaoh.” Moses looks around and says, “Who? Me?! You’ve gotta be kidding! I don’t have the credentials or the resume for this kind of thing!” God says, “Nope, you’re the man I want.” And this is the part I love. While Moses is grabbing his inhaler, ’cause God’s probably given him an asthma attack with this idea, God says, “Look, let me give you some proof that I’m going to be with you in this.” Here’s what he says, literally.
“I will be with you. This will be the proof that I am sending you: After you lead the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship me on this mountain.”
I can just see Moses going silent for a minute trying to figure out if he’s heard it right. And then going, “Are you kidding me?! You’re telling me to march straight into a king’s palace and tell him, ‘God’s given me the authority to take your entire workforce out of the country for good’. Mind you, I killed a man the last time I was in Egypt and probably still have a warrant out for my arrest!” Moses stops to take a breath so he doesn’t start hyperventilating again. Then he continues, “…and the big proof that’s supposed to make me feel confident about all this is that after, not before, but AFTER, I put my reputation and my life on the line, I’m going to be standing here with the Israelites thanking you?!!!” And then God goes, “…Yep, that about sums it up… Whadya say?” Okay, that’s not in the Bible, but that’s how I probably would have responded. How bout you?
It seems that, to God, this reassurance should have been all that Moses needed to march right back to Egypt. Of course Moses wanted a little more convincing. He kept lobbing up excuses and God blasted each one out of the sky, patiently choosing not to let Moses miss out on the adventure.
The point here is that there are times in which we recognize a problem and know what we should do, but we just don’t know how it’s ever going to work out. We wait for a sign or for enough money or for a certificate that says we have the knowledge to undertake the task. Most times, the right choice is to be practical and line those things up first. Then there are other times, when you can sense that something bigger is at work behind the scenes. It’s at those times when, just like Moses, God is offering you the opportunity to take a risk based on his word and character alone. It’s in those times when he’s saying, “I will be with you. And here’s your proof: after you make it through this, you’ll worship me.” And it’s really no proof at all, but it’s all you need.
We’ll talk more in a few days, but I’d love to hear what you think about all this. Have you ever faced a decision that you felt totally unprepared for? How did you make your choice?
Simple Math and Your Relationship with God
Most people hate math. Do you remember sitting in that math class when you were a kid and asking yourself, “how am I ever going to use this in my life?” Maybe you were even bolder and you asked your teacher the same thing. I only bring up math, because I want to ask you a question. Have you ever sat down to take a math test, looked at a problem, and 10 minutes later realized that you had made that equation way more complicated than it really was? I did that constantly. I would begin throwing in tangents and powers of 22, and before I knew it, I was closer to charting the course of the planet Pluto than I was to solving that problem. I tend to do that in life too. I’ve realized that it’s not just me, and maybe you can relate too.
Often, we miss the most elementary truths as we complicate life’s issues. We make our pursuit to become a great leader or to be successful and wealthy. We develop elaborate expectations and laws for ourselves that we feel God has of us. We judge our standing with God by how we avoid sin and how much time we are spending in prayer and evangelism. The apostle Paul, however, breaks it down for us in his letter to the Romans, “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God – all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God” (5:1).
From the beginning, the point of life has been relationships. When God created man, he created him for a relationship. Because of that, we cannot find fulfillment in life unless we first are in an ever-deepening relationship with God: the entire reason why Jesus came and died for us. This means that the point of every day is not to build a better church or to make enough money to live a comfortable life. It’s not even to avoid sin and become a better person. It’s even simpler than that. The simple truth is that God just wants a relationship with us, a genuine, loving, deep relationship. It can’t get any more basic than that. And it shouldn’t get much more complicated either.
Questions:
1. What do you like/hate about math?
2. What expectations weigh you down? They might be expectations that others have of you, that you have of yourself, or that you feel God has of you.
Does God Like You?
I was riding back from our Easter Weekend with Jacki’s family yesterday and the girls wanted to pop in an Adventure in Odyssey. If you haven’t heard of it, it is an audio series that tells stories to teach lessons (often to children). Anyway, both Jacki and her younger sister had fallen asleep so I was left listening to the story playing and one of the characters asked a question to their dad which I thought was a pretty good one. He was facing some trouble in school and was trying to find out what he needed to change to be liked more. When his dad told him that the opinion that mattered most to him was God’s, the son asked him,
Does God like me?
That question hit the sweet spot. My relationship with Christ started out with a deeeeeeeeep desire to please him and a feeling like I never could. I was constantly failing. Constantly letting him down. It was a part of who I was. I had flaws that kept tripping me up and personality traits that I was working so hard to change. If I was asked that question back then, I would have had a hard time answering it. I knew God loved me, but I didn’t know how he could like me. What was there to like anyway? I mean, if the whole point of being a disciple of Christ was “I must decrease so that he may increase” like we so often quote as Christians, then there must be something about the person that I am that God doesn’t like. Why else would he need to eradicate that in order for Christ to increase in me? I hear Christians say, “God wants to do something through me, I just gotta get myself out of the way before he can do it.” We approach ministry with the intention of showing people that God loves them. I think an equally important issue to address is the need to be liked. But can we really answer that question for people? What do you think?
Does God like you? Why?