A Prayer When You've Had Enough

“Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.” (Ps 14:7 AV)

This has been a weird day.  I went to be with nothing left in the tank.  Because of my faults, sins, lack of faith, etc, I was at the end of my rope.  I was so empty, I could hardly breathe.  Preaching this morning was a real chore.  The last two years have been very difficult.  It started with the COVID hysteria coming to an end.  Then my wife was diagnosed with cancer.  It ended with this frigid polar vortex that is threatening to freeze all our pipes.  I have been shoveling for three days straight and the more I shovel, the less it seems I am getting ahead.  Being almost 60, shoveling heavy snow mixed with ice chunks does work for me.  We got a twelve-inch storm, which normally isn’t the end of the world, but living in the city makes it immensely more difficult.  City plows cannot do their job properly because people do not follow parking restrictions.  Trying to place magical parking spaces is something we do in the city.  From Friday evening until this morning, there has been non-stop pressure on me with more problems than I can handle.  Add to this my wife calling me yesterday stranded on the highway in the middle of a storm with what she thought was a flat tire.  When it rains, it pours.

When I read the above passage this morning, I couldn’t help by feel I was the one praying for the return of Jesus Christ.  There are times we get pushed to our limit.  We simply want the trial to end.  We need the salvation of Jesus Christ to come out of Zion.  The writer is not talking about eternal salvation.   He is speaking of the salvation of the Jews from Gentile control.  He is speaking of the liberation of Israel from its enemies over the last few millennia.  He is speaking of the return of Israel to her land and liberty from her enemies.  The writer is looking for deliverance.  They have had enough.  Yes, much of what they suffered, like us, is self-inflicted.  They went into captivity because did not protect them.  They were disobedient and the LORD allowed them to suffer for their disobedience.  He just wants it to stop.

This was where I was this morning.  I couldn’t get myself out of bed.  It is Sunday, so I had to preach.  I didn’t have the strength to walk, let alone preach.  I had prepared to preach Hebrews chapter nine, but I knew that I didn’t have the strength or wind to do it.  So, instead, the LORD had me preach from my devotions two days ago.  Genesis 35:11 was my verse.  The LORD allowed me to process all that I had been going through the last two and a half years.  God knows what He is doing.  He knows what we need.  Salvation did come out of Zion.  It came in the form of strength from the LORD.

Four Words To Live By

“And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;” (Ge 35:11 AV)

Pretty simple, huh?  Not too complicated.  God is Almighty.  Nothing more can be said.  God is all-powerful.  God will do what God will do and there is no one or nothing that can challenge that.  There is nothing too difficult for God.  God says this to Jacob in the context of two events.  The first was the defilement of Dinah.  A man of Shechem had relations with Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, without the consent of Jacob or her sisters.  They may have forbade it anyway because they were not God’s people.  Be that as it may, she was defiled because of a man’s lust.  The king and men of Shechem made an agreement with Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers.  They would be circumcised in return for co-mingling their people.  The women of Shechem would marry the sons of Jacob, and vice versa. However, Simeon and Levi used this agreement to slaughter the men of Shechem.  On the third day after the procedure, when the men were very sore, they entered their city, killed all the men, and carried off the women, children, and flocks.  This caused Jacob and his family problems with their neighbors.  The fear of God was on their neighbors but Jacob thought they would coagulate alliances and kill off him and his family.  The second event was the death of his father, Isaac.  A lot changed for Jacob.  He had a lot to get through.  Then anchor of his life, Isaac, was gone and Esau had departed for Seir.  He was all alone.  It was important for him to remember that God is omnipotent.  It was important for him to make this a settled truth in his life.

Up to this point, Jacob had a hand in solving his own issues.  They bordered on the side of deception.  The thing is, if he trusted in God, things would have turned out the same.  He did not need to manipulate circumstances to favor his own end.  He didn’t need to purchase Esau’s birthright with bean soup.  He didn’t need to disguise himself as Esau to steal his blessing.  Somehow, God would have worked it all out for him.  Jacob did not need to manipulate a larger flock than Laban’s.  God would have worked it all out.  Jacob took matters into his own hands and didn’t leave things to God.  Or, as the world would phrase it, he didn’t leave things to chance.  He tended to stack the deck in his favor.  What Jacob failed to do is let God be God;  at least to the fullest that he could have.  He devised means to work something out which God would have worked out for him if he simply trusted an Almighty God.  Jacob is no different than any of us.  Jacob had a hard time trusting God by faith.  We cannot have a conversation with God audibly.  We cannot see God.  We experience God through His Spirit.  What we know of God must be accepted by faith.

When I read those four simple words, my response was, “Well, that’s it then.  End of argument.  Mic drop”.  I am God Almighty.  Nothing more can be added.  I was struck by how simple those words are, yet how much they escape us.  Why do we fret?  Why do we worry?  Why do we think we have to take charge of everything or it won’t turn out to our advantage?  Those are such profound words.  Words that need to be in the heart of every soul.  Words that require meditation.  Words that scream for application.  Words to get us through every moment of every day.  Through good times and bad, God is Almighty.  When it appears the world is advancing toward total rebellion against God, God is still Almighty.  When the church may very well have to go through one final great persecution, God is still Almighty.  I am Almighty God.  Four words that we should never forget.  Four words that should define every aspiration, action, and disposition.  I am God Almighty!  And don’t you forget it!

Make Some Booths

“And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.” (Ge 33:17 AV)

The name Succoth means booths.  The meaning is obvious.  Jacob settled in this place and built himself a house and booths for his cattle before continuing his journey to Isaac.  Jacob has just lived a few months of extreme stress.  He ran from Laban with his wives, concubines, children, servants, and cattle.  Rachel had stolen her father’s idols and he was in pursuit to retrieve them.  By the grace of God Jacob was delivered.  God came to Laban in a dream and threatened his life if he harmed Jacob in any way.  They had a serious altercation and decided it was best to part ways for the rest of their natural life.  Neither could communicate with the other.  Then Jacob found that his elder brother Esau, was coming to meet him.  Jacob was on his way back to Isaac and Esau heard about it.  This upset Jacob more than Laban.  Esau, at one time, swore to kill Jacob if he ever got the chance.  Jacob sent much ahead as a way to appease Esau.  When they met, Esau affirmed Jacob rather than confront him.  God had blessed Esau more than he could have imagined and felt Jacob was not a threat at all.  In fact, the reunion was sweet.  When they parted, Jacob came to Succoth, built a house and booths for his cattle, and stayed there for a brief time.  He would leave there and go on to Shechem.  Eventually, he would meet his father, dwell with him, and then bury him.

The journey from Laban’s land to what would eventually be Israel was not an easy one.  Jacob drove his flock hard for three days but when he heard Laban was on his trail, he drove them until Laban caught up with him.  They could not stay in Mizpah very long because it would have violated the agreement Jacob had with Laban.  So, off they went again.  For months, his family and cattle were on the move.  He drove them hard.  When these crises were over, the first thing Jacob did was provide rest for those whom he drove so hard.  He stopped.  He let them catch their breath.  He built them semi-permanent structures to provide protection, community, and rest.  Jacob is a wise steward.  He proved this with the caring of Laban’s flocks.  He knew how it all worked.  He knew how to feed, protect, water, and breed them.  What he learned with the flocks he translated over all which he was endowed with, including his family.  Note also that Jacob built booths and not a single booth.  This means he has several booths located throughout his pastures and booths back by his house.  This was not a month’s stay.  We don’t know how long he was there, but the provision he made was functional.  Jacob was wise in that he cared for those who trusted and followed him.

A good leader understands the limits of those who follow.  Most of all, he needs to know his own limits.  Jacob needed to decompress.  He needed to slow down and allow the emotional battles he had just fought to work themselves out.  Soon, he would return to a dying father and if he does not take some downtime, he will be of no use to him.  He did not allow the guilt of being away to overrule the need for rest and refreshment.  We need to do the same.  Otherwise, we will burn out.  We will put everything we have in the beginning, but if we do not take time to rest and refresh, somewhere down the road, we will burn out and not care too much about what God has called us to do.  Just one more point.  Jacob did get up from that place of booths and move one to Shechem.  He did not stay there.  He knew he had to be with Isaac and that God had called him to that place.  Canaan was his from the promises made to Abraham.  As needful as Succoth was, it wasn’t where God ultimately wanted him.  So, erect those booths.  Take the time you need to recover from overwhelming battles.  Just be prepared that when God says to go where He wants you, you are not tempted to stay where you are.

God's Favor

“And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.” (Ge 29:31 AV)

I thought this was a very special moment between God and Leah.  Leah was in a position not of her own making.  Jacob had labored for Laban for seven years.  At the end of seven years, he was supposed to take Rachel as his wife.  Laban sent Leah to Jacob’s tent because the custom of the people demanded the eldest unmarried daughter marry first.  The next morning, Jacob awoke to find Leah at his side and not Rachel.  This was not Leah’s doing.  She had no choice in the matter.  She was to be given regardless of how she felt.  Yet, Leah took it well.  After one week, Rachel also became a wife to Jacob. Jacob loved Rachel far and above Leah.  And this is where we find our passage.  God took pity on Leah’s condition.  She did not deserve to be disliked as she was.  She was in a situation not of her own making so the LORD blessed her that the love of her husband might grow.  God knows how to fix things that are not of our own making.  He knows how to turn our situation in our favor when we are not the ones who put us in it.  God takes tender mercy on those who have been asked to bear a burden that I unfair and not necessary.

As a teacher in a Christian school, I had those students I preferred over others.  This is natural.  Those students who really take to the subject matter that is dear to your heart and who work extra hard to earn your favor are hard to ignore.  But the thing is, the classroom is filled with gems waiting to be polished and honed.  The one who you might think would not succeed becomes your star pupil.  You just never know.  I held a debate as a class project.  One year, I had this young lady who was terrified of speaking in public.  She never asked questions.  She never answered questions.  She never participated in classroom discussions.  So, asking her to participate in the debate was hugely difficult for her.  When the day came and her argument was due, she froze.  She didn’t make a sound.  Worse yet, she had a tear welling up in her eye.  So, I got down on my knees right in front of her.  I made her block out everyone else in the room and only addressed me.  We had a conversation.  That was her presentation.  She made her points and she was really good!  But who would have ever thought she could be such a learned student?  She was smart and articulate.  All she needed was someone who loved her enough to help her through one of her deepest fears.  All she needed was for someone else to have the confidence she needed and she was immediately a popular person in her class.

God does that for us.  Not all the time.  There are no promises.  Persecution and trials of faith are part of being a believer.  The difference is purpose.  Leah had a purpose.  Her purpose was to bear children for the furtherance of the promises made to Abraham and Isaac.  That would be a bit difficult if her husband preferred her sister over her.  There has to be a relationship to bear children.  So, the LORD showed compassion on her because He felt pity for her.  He also shed compassion on her because she had a job to do.  The preference Jacob had for Rachel meant far more than simple companionship.  It was her purpose.  If she is not liked by her husband, she will never be the mother of his children.  God is good!  He is good, all the time!  God took pity on Leah.  The one with tender eyes.  The one who was far more mature and probably more spiritual than her sister.  Rachel threw a fit at Jacob because she was childish.  Rachel was the one who sold Jacob to Leah for mandrakes.  Rachel was the most beautiful and popular one.  Leah was the simple and submissive one. She was the one who trusted the LORD.  She was the one who desired to fulfill her calling and love her husband.  Because of her heart and her situation, God was good to her.  And He is often more good to us than we deserve.

An Altar of Gratitude

“And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well.” (Ge 26:25 AV)

“I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.” (Ps 9:1-2 AV)

It is amazing how the LORD can give a cohesive thought across seemingly related passages of scripture.  The first passage refers to Isaac who is rescued from his own poor judgment.  He was among Abimelech, king of the Philistines.  Isaac, like his father, passed off his wife as his sister lest he be killed for her sake.  Abimelech, when seeing Isaac sport with his wife, understood the true nature of their relationship and rebuked him for the deception.  What resulted is Abimelech opening his land to Isaac for his family to farm and raise animals.  Over time, much strife occurred between the herdsmen of Isaac and the herdsmen of Abimelech.  When they finally agreed to a well for Isaac and his family, Isaac praised the LORD for what He had done by building an altar and calling upon His name.  No doubt, through it all, Isaac was calling upon the name of the LORD.  What makes this worth mentioning above the other times he sought God was his motive.  This altar was an altar of thanksgiving and praise, just as the vow of Psalm 9.  David promises to praise the LORD for all He has done even though life had its share of problems.  In both passages, the LORD is showing us we need to have special places and times of praise for His goodness to us.

We go to the LORD for all sorts of things.  Most of the time, it is for something we need.  We need forgiveness of sin, most of all.  We need daily sustenance.  We need power and strength for which we serve the LORD.  We need an understanding of the word of God.  We need healed relationships.  Health concerns are almost always front and center.  We need deliverance from enemies.  We need blessings for the enjoyment of life.  We need a lot of things.  Some things are for Self.  Other times, we intercede for the needs of others.  We seek God’s hand upon a deathly ill loved one or co-worker.  We seek the salvation of those whom we know who don’t know the LORD.  We ask the LORD to protect and use our missionaries.  We petition the LORD for ministries that would be a great blessing to those in deeper need than ourselves.  We go to the LORD for all sorts of things.  These things are genuine needs and almost always, not selfish requests upon which we may consume them.  These things we petition the LORD for are realistic and fair.  We do not presume upon the grace of God, but rather, go to Him because we perceive these needs can only be met by our almighty God.

But, how many times do we go to the LORD and ask for nothing?  How many times do we approach the throne of grace for nothing more than to thank God for what He has already done?  How many altars have we erected to the works of God done in the past rather than an altar of need for something in the future?  This is what Isaac did.  This is what David promised to do.  Thankfulness is so very important.  The less thankful we are, the harder life will be.  The less we are grateful for the grace and mercy of God, the more we will think we are entitled to more than we have.  Isaac was a very thankful man.  So, too, was David.  The only time David complained was when he needed God to intercede that the will of God might be furthered in his life.  Isaac was another very grateful man.  You never find him complaining about the situations of life.  Isaac may not have been a perfect man.  He may have misjudged between Jacob and Esau.  But Isaac was a thankful man.  We need more altar praise and thanksgiving.  We need to have special places and times when we thank God for all that He has done rather than be so concerned about what He must do.  Praise the LORD for His goodness!  God is always good and should be recognized as such.

Immediate Faith is the Only Faith

“And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD:” (Ge 19:27 AV)

You have to be impressed with Abraham.  Again, he is not hesitant to obey the LORD by faith regardless of the command.  He was told the evening before to take Isaac up a mountain and offer him as a human sacrifice contrary to the promise of God.  That is, it appears contrary.  How could God promise that through Isaac Abraham’s seed would be called and then tell him to offer him as a human sacrifice?  These two positions do not agree.  Unless one factors in the resurrection.  This is exactly what Abraham did.  He figured if God could give life to a husband and wife who were past the physical ability to produce a child, then He could also raise the dead.  It is the same thing.  Just a matter of degrees.  Sarah ceased the natural ability to bear children.  As far as bearing children, her body was dead.  If God could regenerate the body of Sarah so she could conceive, then He could also raise a dead son back to life.  This was Abraham’s thinking according to the book of Hebrews.  This faith in the resurrection meant Abraham got up very early the next morning and lived by faith.  He did not hesitate.  I would have.  I would have put it off as much as I could.  It would have taken me hours to saddle the asses and pack my bags.  I would not have been in a rush.  Not faith-filled Abraham.  He got up and got going.

God asks us to do difficult things.  Things that require a great deal of faith.  Things we wish we could avoid, but we know we cannot.  It is not just the steps we take that reveal our depth of faith, but also how quickly and with what attitude we take those steps.  Life is not easy.  It never was and it never will be.  Faith is something that can only be learned by experience.  There are no shortcuts to faith.  We are asked to endure hardship we could never do without the power and strength of our ever-abiding God.  We are asked to suffer loss.  We are asked to accomplish tasks beyond our ability.  We are asked to trust God with those things or people who are closest to us.  We are asked to help others along the way when we are hurting ourselves.  The LORD asks us to put it all on the line with little or no backup plan.  He does this because living by faith is the deepest relationship we could ever have with the LORD.  When a child is young, he has no choice but to trust his parents.  How else will he survive?  When they age and become more self-reliant, this trust is often brought into question. When that child can reason and choose and solve his or her own problems, trusting the counsel and guidance of his parents becomes a little harder.  But it is this educated trust that is the deepest of all.  When an adult child asks his or her parents for guidance, and follows it, to the parent it is gold.  It is much deeper than a two-year-old asking for his next meal.  Faith is the basis for deep and lasting relationships.

Abraham knew this.  He knew his relationship with the LORD could only be as deep as his faith in Him.  There was no reason to hesitate.  To do so would harm his walk with God.  If he hesitated and put off what God asked him to do, it would be a stamp on how much he loved and trusted God.  He had to act immediately and decisively.  Abraham is a remarkable man.  He was extremely well-balanced.  He was spiritually and emotionally secure.  Abraham never waivered in his love and faith toward God.  Outside of his relationship with Hagar at Sarah’s bidding, there isn’t a blemish on Abraham’s life.  He was a man of faith who set the example for the entire human race to follow.  May we be as quick as Abraham was to trust the LORD in each and every step of faith He asks us to take.

Going On From the Past

“Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die:” (Ge 19:19 AV)

This is Lot’s request upon hearing he was to flee to the mountains so God could destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.  Rather than go to the mountains, Lot suggested another city. A very small city.  God gave him liberty to do so, but LOT ended in the mountains anyway.  Lot’s fear of the mountains is not without merit.  Many years ago, before he had a family and children, he was kidnapped by five kings and taken to these same mountains.  He was looking at the end of his life.  Abraham led and empowered by God, allied with five other kings.  He invaded the base camp of Lot’s captors rescuing Lot from an untimely end.  So, when the LORD told Lot to flee to the mountains, he had flashbacks of that incident in his life.  He was fearful of the mountains because of the cruelty and threat of death that he faced there.  He felt cities offered him better safety.  That turned out not to be true either.  Lot had to trust God.  He could not allow the scars of the past to affect his present faith.  History may not repeat itself.  It could be that if he trusts the LORD, then things will turn out just fine.

We see this most often in relationships.  Someone suffers great loss and they have a hard time committing to another one.  If it happens more than once, chances grow even greater that the single person will remain single.  We find that with Lisa’s cancer, we also suffer from the same dilemma.  Every CT or PET scan brings us back to the first one.  There is a part of us that expects another shoe to drop.  We anxiously await the news that we think is coming when in reality, it is not coming.  When we suffer a traumatic experience, it is hard to get used to the fact it may never happen again.  It is like getting punched in the face.  Every time we see the bully who did that, we are on our guard and any move whatsoever sees us flinching in anticipation of another blow.  It is natural for us to think this way.  In most cases, it might even be the wisest thing to do.  This helps us to protect ourselves against the blow that is coming.  We can deal with the pain and anxiety a bit better.  The problem is, if we always expect the worst, then we can never experience the best.  At some point, we have to trust the LORD.

Lot and his daughters were with child because, in part, the fear and anxiety of Lot transferred to his daughters.  One night, the two girls devised a plan to get their father drunk and then sleep with him.  They feared that God would judge all the cities and there would be no men to betroth them, marry them, and raise children to their father’s name.  So the first night saw one of the daughters sleep with her father and the other followed the second night.  All this happened because Lot flinched.  He did go to the mountains.  But he did so out of fear and not out of trust.  This flinching at the word of the LORD because of past trauma will affect more than Self.  It will affect all those who follow.  At some point, we have to leave the past in the past.  At some point, we have to believe in the grace and goodness of the LORD.  At some point, we have to stop fearing shadows of what might be and trust in the God who is.  Lot failed to do that.  He failed to allow himself to heal and go on.  He lived in fear.  Fear that the past would repeat itself.  This led to some serious mistakes and trouble for those who would come from his loins.  Leave the past in the past and trust God for the present and future.