What more can I say, then? I've run out of time to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets. It was through faith that they overcame kingdoms, put justice into practice, received promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were strong where they had been weak, became powerful in battle, and sent foreign armies packing.
Women received their dead by resurrection; others were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might receive a better resurrection. Others experienced painful derision and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment; they were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were put to the sword, they went about in sheep skins or goat-hides, they were destitute, they were persecuted, they were ill-treated - the world didn't deserve them! - and they wandered in deserts and mountains, in caves and holes in the ground.
All these people gained a reputation for their faith; but they didn't receive the promise. God was providing something better for us, so that they wouldn't reach perfection without us doing so as well.
If God really loves me and He's really there why is this happening to me? Has anyone ever been there? Yes, says the author the very best have suffered at the hands of evil and they didn't even have what you have! So we run into the problem of evil in the world.
In other religions there is a circular pattern, that is to say that things go round and round and whatever you did in a previous life will either be rewarded or punished in the current life. They would assert that the physical world is of little concern and what was really important was just the life inside you. This is true in the cases of Buddhism and Hinduism which see circumstances and the physical body as bearing very little importance. Gnosticism and certain strains of Platonic philosophies and myths from the Hellenized Greek and Roman cultures saw the physical world as a place to be escaped from forever and the physical world to ultimately be done away with. Certainly not to be re-made or resurrected...such a thought would be absolutely ludicrous...foolishness.
However, in Judaism and Christianity we see the spiritual world and the physical world, heaven and earth, as essentially good, but fallen having become separated by sin only to be re-attached at the point of Jesus on the cross. So for us evil is a parasite on creation, both parts, heaven and earth, that are coming together in such a way as to eradicate evil in all it's forms. The point is that Jesus has already gone ahead of us into that future and is working everything out so that those who love God and are called according to His purposes will arrive there safely, even if the getting there is straight through death and hell themselves. It is then that all the suffering for the faith, all the torture and endurance required of us in real life...it is then that His people will be ultimately vindicated as we take possession of creation.
Don't worry about all this turmoil, keep the faith, remember the teachings of Jesus , stay the course, don't be discouraged look forward with hope and passionate expectations. You are not the first to be called by God to endure for His name's sake. He who promised is faithful. Evil will lose and besides look at this great cloud of witnesses showing forth the glory, the weight, the majesty of the Lord! They surround you! He indwells you! His law has been written on your hearts His Spirit has come upon us! Abide! Abide! Abide in His Love! They could not reach such perfection without us standing strong in the promises!
'I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land'
...and again...
The Kingdom of Heaven is like this! Once upon a time a man sowed good seed in his field. While the workers were asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds in among the wheat, and went away. When the crop came up and produced corn, then the weeds appeared as well. So the farmers servants came to him.
"Master," they said,"didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?"
"This is the work of an enemy," he replied
"So," the servants said to him, "Do you want us to go and pull them up?"
"No," he replied. "If you do that you'll probably pull up the wheat as well, while you're collecting the weeds. Let them both grow together until the harvest. Then when it's time for harvest. I will give the reapers this instruction: 'First gather the weeds and tie them up in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn'"
This is the word of the Lord and we see both progressive and final victory over the corruption of evil. Blessed be the Lord, who can fathom the depths of his wisdom?
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment