Back in 2000, my friend Dan and I were called and hired as pastors of Wellspring Community Church, a fellowship that we started from scratch. Dan and I began the process as friends, but we’d never actually worked together. At first, all was well as we concentrated on getting the facilities ready for launch day. After the church was officially birth in 2001, some minor problems, I’ll call them irritations began to set in.
As senior pastor it was my task to determine the direction of the church. Nearly ever time I ran an idea by the management team, Dan had hesitation and misgivings about my proposals. I began to think, “He’s so arrogant! Dan obviously thinks he has better ideas than me.” I suspected that his opposition was subtle insubordination too.
I also noticed that Dan sometimes missed details. He could get things done, but there’d often be a lot of loose ends and certain things not coming together until the last minute. That made me nervous because I like to at least feel that every detail of every plan as been accounted for. I began to suspect that Dan had some huge character flaws interfering with his work.
Dan was never mean, selfish or lazy, in fact just the opposite. By after working together for two years I was completely frustrated with a man who had been one of my best friends. It was about that time that the two of us took a personality test. This was prompted by our associational missionary who perhaps sensed the tension in our working relationship. The test revealed some interesting things about my friend. He’s a conceptual thinker. He’s constantly looking at the big picture and, thus, misses the details. We both have the same tendency and needed a secretary to handle such things. It also turns out that has the type of personality that always, and I mean always, questions proposals placed before him. He wasn’t being insubordinate or arrogant in those management team meetings. He was expressing who God created him to be. That’s just the way he’s wired. Knowing how God had wired Dan to operate completely changed my perception of his actions.
I wish I could have understood this earlier in our working relationship. Rather than interpret his actions as personal attacks I may have been able to harness his critical thinking skills. I may not have given him certain responsibilities because he wasn’t wired for them. At the very least I would have hired an administrative assistant to take care of the details. I was so focused on how his actions made me feel that I couldn’t see who Dan really was. Our friendship actually suffered until I was enlightened about his approach to life. Once I understood where he was coming from our relationship flourished.
I find that my relationship with God follows the same rule. His ways are mysterious and, at the same time, extremely frustrating. If I’m honest I have to admit that often God doesn’t make sense to me. Depending on what day we had the discussion I might even say that most of the time He doesn’t make sense to me. I am frustrated with God’s way a lot.
But the problem is not with God. It’s with me. Just as with my friend Dan, I tend to interpret God’s will selfishly. How is this affecting me? How does this make me feel? You know the routine. It’s easy to say, “Your will be done,” but it’s often difficult to be happy about it.
This morning we’re going to reflect on the frustrations Abram must have felt as he walked with God. We can’t always determine what God is up to, but there are some certainties present even when God doesn’t make sense. Knowing these truths can help you to hang on to God when you’re frustrated with Him.
Certainties When God Doesn’t Make Sense
1. When you’re perplexed, God sees a bigger picture.
Chapter 13 of Genesis describes the separation of Abram and his family from his nephew Lot and his family. God blessed each man to such an extent that there wasn’t enough food for their livestock in the same area. Fights were breaking out between the shepherds of Abram and the shepherds of Lot. In order to keep the peace, they had to part company.
Over the years preachers and Sunday school teachers have taught that this story is about Abram’s great generosity in giving Lot first choice of the land. Others say that Lot’s selfish desire for the green, well-watered land of the Jordan Valley is the main point. Maybe those things were happening, but that not the purpose of the story.
What’s really going on here is God’s behind the scenes removal of Lot from the land of Canaan. He never ordered the two men to separate, but his extreme blessing made it a necessity. It’s only after Lot’s departure that God appears to Abram and describes in greater detail what he has actually given him. He told Abram to walk through it like an ancient king symbolically measuring off his territory. Then He told Abram that his descendants would be so numerous in that land that counting them would be as easy as counting the grains of dust on the ground. For some reason, not explained by Genesis itself, Lot needed to move away. God’s plan for Abram and his descendants would not move forward until it happened.
Unfortunately Abram had no clue that God had orchestrated this move. Think how painful this must have been for him. Lot was like his own son. He actually lived with Abram after the death of his father Haran. Now Lot, Abram’s beloved nephew, was moving east, to the other side of the Jordan River. Part of Abram’s security also left with Lot. He was a stranger living in a foreign land, surrounded by the perverted and often violent descendants of Canaan. I am sure that Abram was perplexed, but he soon understood that there was a bigger picture for God’s plan to proceed.
We’ve got to keep the same thing in mind when we’re perplexed. God sees a bigger picture that your mind can’t possibly grasp. On Tuesday a young mom named Luanne Wilson died. She was 42 years old and died after a 3 year battle with brain cancer. I graduated high school with Luanne. I actually even kissed her in a game of spin the bottle in junior high. She was an incredibly sweet and loving person. She headed the exceptional children department at Tyro Middle School. She left behind a grieving husband and three young children. Luanne had so much to live for. There were so many kids she could reach for Christ. Her husband and children need her. But she’s gone with quite a bit of suffering leading up to her death. It makes no sense to me or anyone in her family. You can understand how a person with no faith might conclude that there can be no God if He permits such a thing.
We’re perplexed. The only way to make sense of it is to recognize that God sees a bigger picture. God almighty who is ever-present in every situation in each of our lives knows the reason why. The God who has not only seen human history, but is the author of it has a plan. Sometimes He lets us in on it, as He did with Abram. Much of the time He doesn’t. When you’re perplexed, God sees a bigger picture.
As an after thought let me add that it’s usually not helpful to smack someone over the head with this truth when they’re going through a trial. If you tell them God has a purpose in it they’ll automatically begin trying to figure out why. Encourage them to look for God in the situation, not what He’s trying to do through it.
A second certainty when God doesn’t make sense:
2. God is exalted in the unconventional.
God gave Abram an incredible promise: land to a nomad; descendants filling that land to a childless geriatric. In ancient times, if you wanted land which was already filled with people there was only one way to get it: conquest. Keep this in mind as you think about what happened in chapter 14.
Canaan is invaded by 4 powerful, eastern kings. They previously had established their authority over the other kingdoms in the land. A coalition of 5 kings rebelled leading the 4 eastern kings to assemble an army and bring them into complete submission. The 4 eastern kings rolled into Canaan and rolled over everyone. They quickly subdued the armies of the rebellious kings, sacked their cities and carried away all their possessions and any of the people left behind. Abram’s nephew Lot just happened to be living in one of those cites. He, his family, and his possessions were carried off too.
Abram quickly assembled an army made up of his own slaves and citizens from three city-states with which he had an alliance. Miraculously, they defeated the unbeatable eastern kings and plundered them. Get an image in your mind of Abram, probably in his eighties by now, leading this victorious force and abundance of possession back into Canaan. Think about the ramifications of this. Abram was, at that point, the wealthiest man in Canaan. He had conquered the 4 eastern kings who had themselves conquered Canaan. If you’ve got all the wealth and have conquered the conquerors, what does that make you? Were you thinking “king of Canaan”? The land could have been his by conventional means, but apparently that wasn’t God’s plan.
Rather than seize control Abram gives back the wealth and people. He goes a step further and submits to the authority of a neighboring king, Melchizedek, by giving him 10% of the plunder. It was all in Abram’s hands the conventional way, but he gave it all back. Somehow he knew that God is exalted in the unconventional. Somehow, by faith, Abram comprehended that God had another plan. He would soon understand why.
God doesn’t work by conventional methods, but aren’t those typically the methods we rely on most often? Maybe you heard the story back in August of Robert Powell. He won $6 million in the Florida Lottery jackpot. After gathering his winnings he thought of his church. Powell offered First Baptist Church of Orange Park $600,000.00. Remarkably, the church and its pastor declined the offer. Accepting lottery winnings would have been morally wrong, so they said no.
One of my hobbies is to read the news and news forums online at The Dispatch where people comment about the stories. Everyone who posted thought the church was nuts for refusing the money. Think of all the good they could do with it. I was the lone voice of dissent. I thought the church did the morally right thing. I further proposed that that church would probably see God replace what they gave up in the near future.
God works through the strange, the unexpected, the miraculous. Why? If it’s conventional, that means anyone can do it. Our God is the God of the unconventional because He is glorified or exalted through it. I’ve heard it said that God delights to do the difficult, but He specializes in the impossible. Why? Because He is exalted in the impossible. He is far more committed to His own glory than our success.
If in our personal lives or in our families or in our church we find that we’re doing pretty much what everyone else is doing; if we there’s not something unconventional about us we’re probably not bringing God a lot of glory. If on the other hand your life is out of step with the main stream, it means one of two things: either you’re weird or God is at work in your life and He will be exalted.
A final certainty when God doesn’t make sense:
3. Expectations delayed means understanding developed.
If I were Abram, what happened in chapter 15 would be most frustrating. God appears to him in an awesome vision and reaffirms His promise of land and descendants. Then He tells Abram, “Oh yeah, the land won’t actually be yours for more than 400 years. Your descendants are going to have to spend some time enslaved and then it will be theirs.” What God did not tell Abram is that he was going to have to wait until he was 100 before his son would be born. That promise was 15 to 20 years away.
This is God’s pattern. Have you notice that He works on a slower time frame than we do? We want it microwaved, but He serves it from a crock pot.
I’ve noticed that Jesus did this a lot. The disciples struggled in a storm crossing the Sea of Galilee and Jesus, who could see what was happening from a hilltop, waited hours before walking to them on the water. Why the delay? It proved Jesus had power and authority over the sea. When Jesus’ friend Lazarus was sick He was summoned to come immediately and heal the man. Jesus delayed until he was certain Lazarus had been dead for a few days. With the funeral in full swing Jesus finally showed and, to their astonishment, raised him from the dead. Why the delay with all its unnecessary suffering? Jesus wanted to demonstrate with a very, very dead man: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believe in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.” Expectations delayed means understanding developed.
God does want us to have future expectations. That’s what the promise of heaven is all about. But He doesn’t want us to spend our lives concentrating on it or on His Second Coming. We’re to be ready, but not overly concerned about it. God wants present relationship over future expectation right now. Future expectation can actually kill present intimate fellowship.
Think about families and you’ll see the truth of this. When we have children we project hopes on them. We want them to excel in school, go to college, get a good job, etc. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if we overly focus on the future the present must bend to it. We can be so consumed with pushing our kids toward a goal that we don’t enjoy the relationship. Sometimes we adults get so caught up in our own goals – financial, health, career – that we lose focus on the people at hand. We give them everything they need except ourselves and then wake up one day to find young adults who we don’t even know. Never sacrifice present relationship for future hope.
God delayed Abram’s expectation in order to develop his understanding. His understanding of what? God Himself! That’s what Abram’s life was all about. Nearly everyone of his time viewed god, whichever one they chose, as a small god who can be manipulated with ritual and sacrifice. With Abram, God sought to reveal that He was the Lord of heaven and earth who could not be manipulated, but could be trusted.
He can be trusted to keep you safe. He can be trusted to provide for your needs. He can be trusted to keep His word every time. When you boil it all down what God’s really asking is, “Do you trust Me!”
Do you trust that I really see the bigger picture when your world is perplexing?
Do you trust Me enough to do unconventional things because in them you will be empowered and fruitful and I will be exalted?
Do you trust Me when your expectations are delayed and keep walking with me in present relationship anyway?
