Testing; Hebrews 13
From the heart of the pastor...
“The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What
shall man do to me?” (Heb. 13:6).
In testing/trial/suffering/sacrifice you most fully
appreciate God’s hand because those occasions present
the clearest opportunity for movements of thanksgiving.
Genesis 22’s Mt. Moriah was a Mount of
Testing/Trial/Suffering/Sacrifice. Upon its slopes you
are gradually brought to the place where loyalties are
defined and commitments solidified, for it is there that
God speaks to His beloved in the wilderness from the
pillar of fire indwelling their souls.
God moves a person from what God knows to be a living
grave, though that person may perceive his present
situation a place of life. He moves His people without
taking them into His confidence concerning the reason
for the move – His silence is as divine as the movement
of His Spirit upon the hearts of men. You naturally
resist God’s holy movements because God’s ways are not
yours and you cannot see His goal in the move. He has a
land for you to go up and possess, but you must first
train for the going up (sacred strength) and the
possession (sacred wisdom).
Abraham was called by God to leave his country and
family for the land God would show him (after he moved!)
for the purpose of blessing all the families of the
earth through him (Gen. 12:1-3). The nation of Israel
came from Abraham’s loins and would become the blessing
from God to all the nations. Nonetheless, Israel would
first have to exodus Egypt, conquer Canaan and establish
the Lord’s standard in the land. Though the overall
goal surely suited the people of the Hebrews, Israel was
not overly fond of the Lord’s process, so in the
wilderness of Paran when they spied out the land of
Canaan, they determined that the effort required was not
worthy of God’s divine design (Nu. 13f.).
The Lord has given the Church the mission of conquering
the sinful world with weapons of warfare “not of the
flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of
fortresses” (II Cor. 10:4). The Church knows that all
authority has been given to Christ in heaven and on
earth. The Church knows that she is responsible to God
in Christ for making disciples of all nations by
teaching them to obey all Christ has commanded (Mt.
28:18-20). Nevertheless, in spite of this great
commissioning the Church remains in the wilderness
admitting that the land “certainly does flow with milk
and honey,” but “the people who live in the land are
strong, and the cities are fortified and very large” (Nu.
13:27f.).
From all appearances the Church refuses to adopt the
positions set forth by her Joshuas and Calebs. It
ignores the lusciousness of the fruit in the land,
because it perceives that the people are too strong for
the Church and therefore for God Himself – the Church
has become as a mere assemblage of grasshoppers in its
own sight (Nu. 13:33). Lack of trust has become the
mantra of the unmoving, compromising, static Church.
God moved the Hebrews throughout the deserts to further
train her for the work she could have already been
accomplishing. The blessing in God’s gracious allowance
to a people who choose God’s permissive will over His
perfect will is that they become more receptive to His
perfect will and are schooled in how to husband His
perfect will.
Though God’s children should never desire anything other
than His perfect will, when they do choose His
permissive will over His perfect will, they are yet in
His gracious compassionate love granted many blessings.
If the people of the Hebrews had not come to experience
the circuitous path they followed, they would not have
known the occurrence of Miriam’s leprosy, Korah’s
rebellion or Sinai’s thunder and lightning. Would they
have tasted the manna, witnessed the cloud by day and
pillar of fire by night or drank from the rock?
The Church has many experiences it would not have
historied if it had not chosen God’s permissive will.
Nonetheless, the wanderings of the Church since the
ascension of Christ have now consumed over two
millennia, and yet it continues to amble. Why? Why so
slow to understand even with the example of the nation
Israel set before it does the Church continue to resist
movement?
The Israelites were Egyptian by birth, Egyptian by
environment and Egyptian by natural religion. You are
worldly by birth, worldly by environment and worldly by
natural religion. But! “But God, being rich in mercy,
because of His great love with which He loved us, even
when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive
together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and
raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the
heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the
ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His
grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph.
2:4-7).
Does the Church truly believe that the waters divided,
the Passover at Gilgal occurred and the walls of Jericho
fell? Is the Church of Christ ignoring its past because
it refuses to trust the hand of the Lord whose glory
shall surely fill the earth? Are there no Moseses in
the Christian Church who through the disciplining of
God’s Spirit have moved beyond eighty years of training
to now capture forty years of deliverance?
You are in God’s universe; you are God’s workmanship;
you are created in Christ Jesus for good works – you
should now be walking in those good works (Eph. 2:10).
Your responsibility is to make the movements appropriate
to manifest the might, majesty and mercy of He who alone
is the chiefest amongst ten thousand and the most fair
of all the sons of men.
Soli Deo Gloria!
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