Hindsight

The thing I love about the Bible is that it’s reality based.  If you wanted to start a movement you’d want to write stories about heroes who succeed wildly, who gain wealth incredibly, who stay healthy supernaturally.  I’d want to have people picturing God as though he were Santa Claus.  Instead, in the pages of scripture, we have people who often struggle, lose and suffer!  Following God does not guarantee health and wealth, reality is usually not like that.  Before you commit to following the God of the Bible count the cost carefully.  Look with me for a few moments at the how the Bible records the lives of individuals who are highly committed.

Jeremiah preaches for forty years and no one listens and nothing changes!  That’s got to be discouraging.  Yet Jeremiah faithfully followed God’s claim on his life and performed the task for which God had created him.  Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:4-5  If I were God trying to obtain recruits I surely wouldn’t tell that story!

How about Isaiah who is told, “Go, and tell this people: Keep on listening, but not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eye dim, Lest they see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”  Isaiah 6:9-10  Why would you tell that story if you were trying to explain the benefits of following God?

Why would God allow these stories into the pages of scripture? 

#1.  Because He wants us to understand that the world is an evil place, and when you serve a holy God who asks for holy attitudes and holy lives, evil people want to make you look like a loser. 

#2.  Because He wants us to realize that there are larger issues in life than our personal comfort.  What if every decision revolved around my own personal comfort?  I’d never get out of bed in the morning.  Being truthful, honest, and straight-forward may be a pea under the mattress of my personal comfort!

#3.  Because He wants us to comprehend that there are lessons that can only be learned through suffering.  I am inspired by people who, although suffering, are faithful to their Lord.