The Wise Son

May 14, 2023 in Bible - OT - Proverbs, Meditations, Wisdom

Proverbs 13:1 (NKJV) 

1A wise son heeds his father’s instruction, But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. 

Paul writes in Romans 8:29 that God has predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Proverbs assist us in that process, directing us in the way of wisdom and teaching us what it is to imitate our Lord’s character. Today we are instructed to heed our father’s instruction.

Solomon contrasts the wise son with the scoffer. The wise son heeds – listens to and follows – his father’s instruction – his commands, admonitions, and exhortations. A scoffer, however, does not listen to rebuke – he believes that he knows better than his father and so casts his father’s counsel aside.

So, children, especially teens, how are you doing? Are you a wise son, a wise daughter, or are you a scoffer? Does your heart incline to honor your father and so to heed his instruction? Not just to listen without interrupting while he speaks to you, but to listen attentively, striving to understand and appropriate the command or instruction that is being offered? Do you heed your father’s instruction? Do you say to yourself, “I want to be a wise man, a wise woman, and God tells me that the pathway to wisdom is listening to my father, so I want to listen.” Or do you scoff? Do you close your ears, roll your eyes? Oh, you may sit there and hear your father’s voice. But to you is sounds like, “Waw, waw, waw…” Or perhaps you cut your father short, “I know, I know, I don’t need to hear what you have to say.” If that describes you, then beware. “Judgments are prepared for scoffers, And beatings for the backs of fools” (Pr 19:29).

But the words today apply not only to children but to adults. For Paul writes to the Corinthians:

14I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. 15For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 16Therefore I urge you, imitate me. (1 Cor 4:14–16) 

Paul was a father to the Corinthian congregation – and pastors and elders serve in a similar role. So do you give heed to the instruction of your spiritual fathers? Are you listening now? Or are my words just thrumming in your head while you are thinking about all those projects at home or that movie you watched this week or that problem at work? Are you heeding instruction or are you rejecting rebuke? If you’re doing the latter, then it’s no wonder your children are imitating you.

Finally, if you are in Christ, then you are a son and God is your Heavenly Father. So are you giving heed to His instruction? Do you devote yourself to reading His Word and praying that He would help you understand it? Do you incline Your heart to His ways, or do you harden your heart to rebuke? Do you cast His word aside like our first parents and like Israel, God’s disobedient son? Or are you a wise son?

Reminded that we are called to listen to our father’s instruction in order that we might be wise sons and daughters, let us confess that we are often scoffers instead, that we often fail to listen to rebuke. And as we confess our sin to the Lord, let us kneel as we are able.

The Good Life

May 7, 2023 in Bible - OT - Proverbs, Meditations

Proverbs 12:28 (NKJV) 

28In the way of righteousness is life, And in its pathway there is no death. 

Paul writes in Romans 8:29 that God has predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Proverbs assist us in that process, directing us in the way of wisdom and teaching us what it is to imitate our Lord’s character. Today we are instructed to walk in the way of righteousness.

What is the good life? And who has the capacity to define it? Is it a can of Michelob beer on a camping trip? Is it a good cigar? Is it fast cars and fast women? Massive biceps? A full head of hair? Smoking dope? The cheer of the crowd? What is the good life?

Among no class of men are these questions more urgently and ardently asked than among those who are young. Children and young adults are gifted by God with an appetite to have their questions answered, a desire to find and secure the good life. As they gaze out over the future, they want to know, “What will bring me joy and pleasure in the course of my life? What is the pathway to life?”

Unfortunately, at no time in history have the brokers of the good life been more prolific and skilled in their marketing, leading generations of men and women in the way of death. Professing to be wise, we have become fools, exchanging the glory of God for idols made in the likeness of men. Hence, though we go on one craze after another, we finite creatures are unable to identify what is genuinely good for us. How do we know, infallibly, that some trend we have jumped on today will bring joy and happiness tomorrow? As Solomon reminds us elsewhere,“There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it is the way of death.” We are not omniscient and so we are unable, as humans, to identify the good life. 

The most that we can identify on our own is what brings momentary happiness or pleasure. But we can never be sure that these momentary pleasures won’t bring devastating consequences in the future. One thinks of the radical reversal that has come in the last century over smoking cigarretes. Once admired as the mark of the debutant, the rich and famous, the discovery of its ill effects has relegated it to the down and out. So how do you know that that microwave popcorn you’ve been sneaking after the kids go to bed won’t prove your undoing? 

Do we then have no hope in the world? Must we live our lives in constant uncertainty, blown about by every scheme for the good life? Are you youth unable to answer the questions which you most hunger to know? Are we left without a sure foundation? May it never be! For God has defined the good life for us: “In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.” And because our Lord is omniscient, He knows all the end roads, all the results of various actions. He knows that homosexuality is destructive; knows that sexual immorality saps one of character and strength; knows that life is more than the multitude of one’s possessions; knows that humans can have no greater pleasure than when we find our satisfaction in Him. And the glorious thing is that He has revealed all of this to us in His Word. We can know what the good life is – for the Creator of all has revealed it to us and makes life understandable and meaningful as a result.

Despite the clarity of God’s revelation, however, we often spurn His revelation. Attempting to run our lives on our own sense of what is good and right, we find ourselves repeating the sin of our First Mother who, judging for herself, saw that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was pleasant to the eyes and desireable to make one wise. She spurned God’s Word in favor of her own judgment. So what of you? Are you walking in the way of righteousness and reveling in the abundant life that Jesus gives? Or are you walking in your own way and careening toward death or perhaps tasting it even now?

Reminded of our failure to walk in the way of righteousness and our tendency to trust in our own wisdom and wit rather than God’s Word, let us confess our sins together. And as we confess, let us kneel before the Lord.

The Strong City of Wealth

April 30, 2023 in Bible - OT - Proverbs, Meditations

Proverbs 10:15 (NKJV)

15 The rich man’s wealth is his strong city; The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

In the text before us today, Solomon highlights the blessing of wealth and the danger of poverty. On the one hand, we have the blessing of wealth. The rich man’s wealth is his strong city… In the ancient world, a strong city was a place of refuge and protection from the ravages of war. Walled cities, or strong cities as Solomon calls them, were havens of security in an insecure world. Like the walls of these strong cities is the wealth of the rich man. His wealth enables him to hide himself, his family, and his friends in times of hardship or difficulty. His wealth is a source of security and protection. It is a blessing from God.

On the other hand, we have the danger of poverty. The destruction of the poor is their poverty. Whereas marauders, thieves, and foreign armies often left strong cities alone, they frequently laid waste small villages and unwalled cities, plundering property, slaying the populace, and devastating the surrounding countryside. These unwalled cities were constantly exposed to danger and oppression. Likewise, the poor man. When hardship arrives, the poor man has no resources to protect himself or his family. His poverty is his destruction.

Solomon’s words remind us, first, of the blessings of material wealth. Living hand to mouth is sometimes necessary but rarely wise. It is always better to save for a rainy day and to build one’s wealth so that in times of hardship you have a strong city to which you can flee. In Scripture, it is commendable to acquire wealth. While it is sinful to have a lust for wealth, or to use your wealth to promote wickedness, or to steal from others to gain wealth, it is not sinful to acquire wealth. The rich man’s wealth is his strong city… and is, therefore, a blessing from God.

Solomon’s words also remind us, second, of the blessings of spiritual wealth. It is the man or woman who knows the character and promises of God who will be able to endure times of hardship and suffering in faith. And this type of wealth, spiritual wealth, is a wealth that any child of God can acquire whether he be materially rich or poor. So Paul writes of the rich: “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim 6:17-19). And James writes of the poor, “Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” (2:5) Spiritual wealth is a strong city which any child of God may acquire by the grace of God.

So what of you? On the one hand, are you endeavoring to store up material wealth in order that you may have a strong city in times of trouble? Are you avoiding debt and endeavoring to save or are you perpetually living hand to mouth? On the other hand, are you endeavoring to store up spiritual wealth? Are you growing in your knowledge of God’s character and promises so that you may be able to weather the tribulations that will come your way in this life? Remember the words of Solomon: “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city; The destruction of the poor is their poverty.”

Reminded of our calling to think of tomorrow and to store up wealth for times of trouble, let us acknowledge that we often fail to do so. And as we confess, let us kneel before the Lord.

Death, Our Conquered Foe

April 16, 2023 in Meditations, Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:51–57 

51Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

We are in Eastertide, the period when the Church has historically continued to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection is too momentous an event to celebrate only one Sunday – for it is Jesus’ resurrection that eliminates for us the fear of death and assures us that the bodies of all those who believe in Him shall likewise be raised from their graves.

And it is this theme upon which Paul dwells in our text today. This corruptible body must pass through the furnace of death and be raised incorruptible; this mortal body must pass through the furnace of death and be raised immortal. And when this has happened, when at the Last Day Christ has returned in glory and raised all those who believe in Him from their graves, when He has transformed our lowly bodies into the likeness of His glorious body – righteous, incorruptible, and immortal – then shall come to pass the promise of Scripture, “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

In other words, brothers and sisters, we have immense hope. Death is not the final word. As horrible as death is, as devastating as it is, death is a conquered foe. Jesus rose from the dead; Jesus dealt death a death blow. We now live in sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead. Therefore, because Christ has risen, we can have immense confidence in the face of death itself and in the face of all death’s minions – sickness, pain, torture, persecution, hardship, trial. None of these things have the last word – the last word belongs to Jesus and to life. And this is what Psalm 27:13 articulates. “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.” Or as Paul writes in our text today, “Oh death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So how are we to treat death? With contempt. As John Donne would teach us to say, “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so…” Why? Because Christ is risen and has broken death’s power. Even as Christ rose from the dead, we too shall rise. This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. So what should characterize our lives? Fearless and unshrinking zeal to maintain the truth of God against all opposition – whether from our own flesh or from the world or from the devil himself. Congregation of the Lord, Christ is Risen!

So reminded of the power of Christ’s resurrection but no doubt reminded also that we frequently are fearful and shrinking rather than fearless and hopeful, let us confess our lack of faith to the Lord and petition Him for renewed boldness. And, as you are able, let us kneel together as we confess our sin.

Palm Sunday

April 2, 2023 in Church Calendar, Meditations

Revelation 7:9–12 (NKJV) 

9After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” 

Today is Palm Sunday, the day on which our Lord Jesus entered into Jerusalem and was acclaimed the long-awaited Messiah by the people of Israel. To celebrate Jesus’ entrance into the city, they gathered the branches of palms, laid some upon the road and waved others in the air, rejoicing in His arrival. In Christian history, we have called this event Jesus’ Triumphal Entry and celebrated it on Psalm Sunday.

In Revelation 7, John recounts a vision of peoples praising God with the waving of palm branches. John beholds an immense multitude standing before the throne of God and before the Lamb of God. They are clothed in white robes which point to the forgiveness of sins through the shed blood of Jesus (cf. 7:14). And in their hands are palm branches. So why palms? Why have we distributed palms in worship today so that your children can disturb you with them during the service?

The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery notes that throughout the OT, “the palm tree was associated with the oasis, a place of fertility in the midst of the wilderness. It provided food in the form of the date, and its sap could be used as a sweetener or for making wine… the palm frequently connoted fertility and blessing” (622). Consequently, the palm tree made its way into the construction of the temple. Palms were carved into the walls and doors of Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 6:29, 32, 36). And later, in Ezekiel’s vision of God’s renewed temple, he describes the palms that decorated each of the gateways and gateposts of the temple. The use of palms was God’s way of likening the temple to a fruitful garden, like the Garden of Eden, a place where His blessing dwells. 

As we continue reading the OT, however, it is evident that the palms in the Temple were meant to point God’s people to their own calling and identity as well. For the righteous, Psalm 1 tells us, are like trees planted by streams of living water. And Psalm 92 promises, “The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God” (Ps 92:12-13). God’s people are meant to be fertile in good works and a source of blessing to the world. The Church is called to be an oasis in a dry land, a place of fertility in the midst of the wilderness.

So when John beholds the disciples of Christ, clothed in white robes and carrying branches of palm in their hands, it is this vision of fruitfulness, delight, and blessing that he wishes to communicate to us. We are palm trees adorning the temple of the Living God. So the righteous cry out, while waving their palms, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And the angels join in the praise, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Then the angels explain the significance of the palms with these words, “They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters [in other words, He will lead them to oases where palm trees grow]. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev 7:16-17). Our gracious Lord Jesus Christ who entered intoJerusalem today is the water of life who gives life to His people that we might be conduits of life and blessing to the world.

So as we enter into worship this Palm Sunday, waving our branches of palm, let us rejoice that our Lord Jesus has given Himself for us, He has shed His blood that we might stand before our God clothed in garments of white and that we might be fruitful palm trees, reflecting the fruitfulness of our God. The only way that we can be here in such joy is by confessing our sin, our need for the cleansing blood of Christ, and our need for His empowering grace. So let us confess our sins to the Lord and rejoice in His goodness. And let us kneel as we are able.

Diligence & Laziness

March 19, 2023 in Bible - OT - Proverbs, Meditations

Proverbs 12:27 (NKJV) 

27 The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, But diligence is man’s precious possession. 

Paul writes in Romans 8:29 that God has predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Proverbs assist us in that process, directing us in the way of wisdom and teaching us what it is to imitate our Lord’s character. Today we are instructed once again to be diligent not lazy.

A few weeks ago we considered Solomon’s adage, “The hand of the diligent will rule, But the lazy man will be put to forced labor” (12:24). So important is diligence that Solomon reiterates it in our text today, “The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, But diligence is a man’s precious possession.” So let us expand what we learned last time about diligence.

Webster defines “diligent” as “steady in application to business; constant in effort or exertion to accomplish what is undertaken; assiduous; attentive; industrious; not idle or negligent…” The man of diligence is not afraid of hard work and exertion. He remembers that God created man to work. We were designed to fill the earth and subdue it and to exercise dominion over it (Gen 1:28). God did not put mankind in the garden so that he would sit back and eat grapes all week; God put mankind in the garden to work. Adam was to take the order of the garden and extend it to the rest of creation. And though the Fall introduced toil into the world, often causing our work to be frustrating or foiled, work itself remains good and noble and right, a holy calling. Consequently, the righteous man is diligent. Such diligence is his precious possession, more valuable than wealth itself because diligence is the pathway to wealth.

The lazy man, on the other hand, does not roast what he took in hunting. He fails to complete his tasks. Oh, he sets out industriously. He grabs his gun, heads out in the woods, and takes a deer. But having done all this work, having pushed himself this far, he gives up. He can’t bring himself to roast the deer for dinner. The result? He starves or steals from others.

Solomon’s words remind us that diligence is characterized by perseverance. We all grow tired in our work. We set out with great ambitions and desires and goals. We are going to change the world. But we didn’t think that changing the world entailed changing quite that many diapers or correcting quite that many papers or writing quite that many reports or stocking quite that many shelves or plumbing quite that many buildings or forgiving quite that many sins. You get the idea. We grow tired. The grass looks greener on the other side of the fence. So we scrap our work and set out for something new – not because that new opportunity is truly better; rather because we are lazy and don’t want to finish the work that God has given us to do.

So what of you? Are you diligent or lazy? When you are given a task, do you complete it? Or do you regularly leave things half done? Do you start jobs and rarely finish them? Start reading your Bible but rarely follow through with your plan? Start cleaning your room but leave that mess in the closet? Start praying with your family but cease after a week? Start your homework but give excuses to your teacher for why it’s not finished? Are you diligent or are you lazy?

Reminded that we are called to be diligent men and women and children who are “steady in application to business, constant in effort or exertion,” let us acknowledge that we are often lazy, that we often leave jobs half done and make excuses for our laziness. And as we confess our sin to the Lord and seek His forgiveness through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, let us kneel as we are able.

Choose Your Friends Carefully

March 12, 2023 in Bible - OT - Proverbs, Friendship, Meditations

Proverbs 12:26 

26The righteous should choose his friends carefully, For the way of the wicked leads them astray. 

Paul writes in Romans 8:29 that God has predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Proverbs assist us in that process, directing us in the way of wisdom and teaching us what it is to imitate our Lord’s character. Today we are instructed to choose our friends carefully.

Friendship is one of God’s good gifts to us as human beings. C.S. Lewis writes in his book The Four Loves, “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” Friendship reveals that we humans are more than just material beings; we were created in the very image of the Triune God and, therefore, we were made to befriend others and to be befriended in turn. Such friendships provide comfort, stimulate good character, and inspire self-sacrifice. So our Lord Jesus proclaimed to the disciples: “13Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends… 15No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:13,15). Friendship is a gift; and friendship with God in Christ is the greatest gift of all.

Like all other aspects of creation, however, friendship has been tainted by the Fall. At times, we find ourselves lonely, longing for a friend; at other times, we harbor sinful desires, looking for friends who will justify our bad choices. Such loneliness and sinfulness tempt us to befriend those who draw us away from God, from truth, and from virtue. And it is this temptation to which our Proverb points us today, “The righteous should choose his friends carefully, For the way of the wicked leads them astray.” Choose your friends carefully. For, as the Apostle Paul reminds us, “Bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Cor 15:33).

So Proverbs is filled with warnings about befriending certain types of people:

  • 2:12, 16 – Promises us that if we will but treasure wisdom, then she will guard us from befriending violent men and immoral women.
  • 20:19 – Warns us lest we befriend a flatterer, a gossip, a talebearer. “He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; Therefore do not associate with one who flatters with his lips.”
  • 22:24–25 – Warns us lest we befriend a man who lacks self-control. “Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go, Lest you learn his ways And set a snare for your soul.”
  • 29:24 – Warns us lest we befriend a thief. “Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life; He swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing.”

So what of you? Teens, are you choosing your friends carefully? Or are you permitting your loneliness or your sinfulness to tempt you to befriend those who are drawing you away from God, from truth, and from goodness? And these friends can be “in the flesh” friends but they can also be online friends, movie characters, and even books. Whom are you choosing to let shape your longings and loves? Adults, are you choosing your friends carefully? Or are you permitting your loneliness or your sinfulness to tempt you to befriend those who would draw you away from God, from truth, and from goodness? “For friendship with the world”, James warns us, “is enmity with God. Therefore, he who desires to be a friend with the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jas 4:4).

Reminded of God’s call to choose our friends carefully lest we be led astray from God, from truth, and from goodness, let us confess that we often choose friends foolishly; that we are tempted by our loneliness and sinfulness to befriend those we should not. And, as we confess, let kneel as we are able.

Anxiety & Depression

March 5, 2023 in Bible - OT - Proverbs, Meditations

Proverbs 12:25 

25Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad. 

Paul writes in Romans 8:29 that God has predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Proverbs assist us in that process, directing us in the way of wisdom and teaching us what it is to imitate our Lord’s character. Today we are instructed to relieve others’ anxiety and depression through good words.

Anxiety is a common temptation for us as fallen creatures. Satan takes advantage of our finitude and our inability to control the circumstances of our lives to move us to anxiety. Webster defines anxiety as “concern or solicitude respecting some event, future or uncertain, which disturbs the mind, and keeps it in a state of painful uneasiness.” So we can be anxious about the weather, anxious about our appearance, anxious about our health, anxious about a strained relationship, anxious about some gossip that we have heard, anxious about the political situation, anxious about how we will provide for our family or solve a problem or complete all our assignments or shepherd our children. In short, we can become anxious about just about anything.

This anxiety in the heart, Proverbs tells us, causes depression. If we do not cut this anxiety out of our lives and entrust ourselves to the loving care of Almighty God who controls all the uncertainties of life and has promised to cause all things to work together for the good of those who love Him, then it will cause our heart to be cast down and overwhelmed. 

In such times, when we are anxious and cast down, how helpful it is to hear a good word from another: “But a good word makes [the heart] glad.” God uses good words, true words, encouraging words, to break our anxieties and relieve our heaviness of heart. So Isaiah exhorts us:

3Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. 4Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.” 

Isaiah urges us not to be distant from those who are anxious and fearful-hearted but to remind them of the truth: God is good and He promises to do good for all those who are in Christ Jesus. He will not abandon us to our fears. So do not grow weary, do not grow faint, God shall rescue you just at the breaking of the dawn.

So what of you? Is your heart full of anxiety today? Are you downcast and depressed? Then hear today a good word. God our Creator is the Lord of heaven and earth. He has so loved us that He sent His Son to bear our burdens that through faith in Him we might know that God loves us and is on our side. So our Lord Jesus reminds us:

25“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Mt 6:25-26)

You are of much more value than the birds of the air. So do not be anxious. Your heavenly Father will care for you.

Reminded that we are often tempted to anxiety and depression and that we often neglect to speak good words to one another so as to relieve anxiety and instead feed others’ anxieties with negative and fearful words, let us confess our lack of faith to our Father in heaven. And as we confess, let us kneel as we are able.

Through Many Tribulations

February 26, 2023 in Bible - OT - Deuteronomy, Meditations

Deuteronomy 8:1–5 (NKJV) 

1Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. 2And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. 4Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. 

On his first missionary journey, as the Apostle Paul traveled through the various cities where he had planted churches, he encouraged the brethren and reminded them, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). That which was true for our fathers in Paul’s day is likewise true for us. In His wisdom, God uses tribulations to accomplish His purposes for His people. 

So why do such tribulations come our way? If we are sons of God, children of God, objects of His love and affection, then why must we enter the kingdom through many tribulations? Our text offers three reasons – for even as we face many tribulations throughout our individual lives and throughout history, so our fathers did; for forty years they wandered in the wilderness, suffering various tribulations. So what are these three reasons?

First, trials and tribulations humble us. God led our fathers through the wilderness, “to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (8:2). Nothing reveals the depths of our hearts and the many ways in which we continue to need to grow in grace than trials. We’re sick and what do we do? We, who when healthy are remarkably patient, begin snapping at the kids, are short with our spouse, or grumble and complain against God. So what are we learning about ourselves? We’re learning that we aren’t quite as sanctified as we thought, learning that there is still work for God to do, learning to confess our sin and to acknowledge our continuing need for God’s grace. Trials and tribulations humble us.

Second, trials and tribulations teach us to rely on God’s Word. God tested Israel “that you might know that man does not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (8:3). Rod Dreher, in his book Live Not by Lies, recounts that, during the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, Silvester Krcmery faced persecution, imprisonment, and even torture for his faith. Krcmery wrote later in his biography that he came to realize “that the only way he would make it through the ordeal ahead was to rely entirely on faith, not reason. He says that he decided to be ‘like Peter, to close my eyes and throw myself into the sea’” (153). Tribulations force us to rely on God’s promises even though we cannot see the fruit of them at present; they teach us.

Finally, trials and tribulations remind us that we are children of God. “You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you” (8:5). In times of trial, if you are in Christ, then know in your heart that the trial has not come because the Lord hates you but because He loves you. As a loving Father, the Lord is sending this trial to chasten you that you might learn to remain faithful to Him and to grow in maturity. Trials and tribulations remind us that we are God’s children.

As I wrote in the newsletter this week, today is the first Sunday in Lent. Like Advent, Lent is a time of preparation and anticipation, a time of longing. We await the coming of Easter and the celebration of Christ’s triumph over death. Lent reminds us that, until our own resurrection, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. Lent harkens back to Israel’s 40 years, and to our Lord’s 40 days, in the wilderness. Hence, Lent is a time to remember that times of trial and tribulation are not strange. Paul writes that even our Lord Jesus, “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered …” (Heb 5:8). So if our Lord Jesus had to learn obedience by suffering, dare we think that we shall be exempt? Let us then “count it all joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect work, that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (Jas 1:2-4).

So reminded that times in the wilderness, times of trial humble us, teach us to rely on God’s Word, and train us as His children, let us acknowledge that we often respond to such trials in unbelief rather than in faith. And as we confess our sin, let us kneel as we are able.