TRUSTING GOD … WHEN FIG TREE DOES NOT BUD!
“As predicted, for seven years the land produced bumper crops. During those years, Joseph gathered all the crops grown in Egypt and stored the grain from the surrounding fields in the cities. He piled up huge amounts of grain like sand on the seashore. Finally, he stopped keeping records because there was too much to measure. During this time, before the first of the famine years, two sons were born to Joseph and his wife, Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On. Joseph named his older son Manasseh, for he said, “God has made me forget all my troubles and everyone in my father’s family.” Joseph named his second son Ephraim, for he said, “God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief.” At last the seven years of bumper crops throughout the land of Egypt came to an end. Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted. The famine also struck all the surrounding countries, but throughout Egypt there was plenty of food. Eventually, however, the famine spread throughout the land of Egypt as well. And when the people cried out to Pharaoh for food, he told them, “Go to Joseph, and do whatever he tells you.” So with severe famine everywhere, Joseph opened up the storehouses and distributed grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout the land of Egypt. And people from all around came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe throughout the world.” (Genesis 41:47–57, NLT)
(SLIDE 2)
INTRODUCTION
As autumn was drawing to a close, the Indians on a remote reservation asked their new Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was an Indian Chief it was expected of him to be able to predict the weather. Unfortunately, he had never been taught the secrets of his ancestors. Nevertheless, because he was the chief he had to say something. So he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should begin to gather firewood in preparation.
Wanting to make certain of his prediction, he decided to call the local branch of the National Weather Service. "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" he asked.
"It looks as if this winter will be quite cold," the meteorologist at the weather service responded. So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.
A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Is it going to be a very cold winter?" "Yes," the man at National Weather Service replied, "I am fairly certain that it is going to be a very cold winter." The Chief went back to his people and told them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.
Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" "Absolutely," the man replied. "It’s going to be one of the coldest winters ever." "How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked. To which the weatherman replied, "The Indians on the local Reservation are collecting wood like crazy."
One way of forecasting weather patterns! Someone said the weatherman is the only profession that makes a living by consistently telling untruths. Reminds one of the story of the old farmer who had a small piece of rope hanging from his porch under which was a sign reading ’weather forecaster’. “How does this work?” a visitor asked the old farmer. “It’s quite simple” replied the old man “when it swings it is windy; when it is wet it is raining; when it is dry it is clear; when it is frozen stiff it is snowing. When it is gone…we‘re having a tornado!”
Whilst it may be a problem to correctly forecast the weather, the Bible leaves us in no doubt as to who controls the weather! This brings us to our next topic … TRUSTING GOD … WHEN THE FIG TREE DOES NOT BUD! So far as we have looked at the life of Joseph we have learnt about …
1. TRUSTING GOD … IN ALL LIFE’S EVENTS!
2. TRUSTING GOD … WHEN YOUR DREAMS GO DOWN THE DRAIN!
3. TRUSTING GOD WHEN TEMPTATION CREEPS IN!
4. TRUSTING GOD WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN WRONGED!
5. TRUSTING GOD WHEN GOD PUT YOUR LIFE ON HOLD!
6. TRUSTING GOD WHEN THINGS GO YOUR WAY!
Today we turn our focus onto how Joseph continued to trust God when things started to happen just as God said it would.
7. TRUSTING GOD WHEN THE FIG TREE DOES NOT BUD!
As we consider the seven years of plenty followed by the seven years of famine, we see that JOSEPH TRUSTED GOD IN THE MIDST OF ABUNDANCE AND DISASTER IN THE NATURAL WORLD BECAUSE …
• HE DID NOT DETHRONE GOD
• HE DID NOT DISHONOUR GOD
• HE DID NOT DOUBT GOD
We will consider each of these in turn! At the start I want to acknowledge my indebtedness to Steve Farrar in his book ‘God Built’ and Jerry Bridges in his book ‘Is God Really in Control’ for help in handling this extremely difficult and potentially contentious subject.
(SLIDE 3)
JOSEPH DID NOT DETHRONE GOD
We have very little trouble attributing to God the first part of what happened in Egypt following Joseph’s meteoric rise to power, the seven years of abundance. We have no difficulty at all in confidently proclaiming that blessing is from God. With James we can say with assurance … “Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.” (James 1:17, NLT)
However, when it comes to what followed, seven years of famine, we begin to hesitate. People suffer during famine. People die in famines. Little children become malnourished in famine; they die! Can anyone remain unmoved as you see images on TV of what is happening in Somalia, of mothers holding babies with extended bellies and glassy eyes, too weak to cry out in hunger; of fathers carrying bundles containing the lifeless bodies of their children to bury them in mass graves? Is God in control of this?
If God is in control of events such as this, or an earthquake in Japan or Christchurch, or a tsunami in the Pacific or a hurricane called Katrina, then is God the One who is responsible for those that suffered; those that died?
We sometimes forget that people are dying every minute of everyday all around the world but when many die at the same time, at the same place due to a natural disaster we ask … ‘If God is really in control then why did God allow something like this to happen?’
Jerry Bridges in his excellent book ‘Is God Really in Control’ says “It is not wrong to wrestle with these issues, as long as we do it in a reverent and submissive attitude to God. … However, we must be careful not to, in our minds take God off His throne of absolute sovereignty or put Him in the dock and bring Him to the bar of our judgment” (Jerry Bridges)
When disaster happens and we begin to ask these questions and we so often become alarmed when God gets bad press, so much so that we try as it were to get God off the hook, trying to defend God or explain away His involvement, But in so doing we run the risk of dethroning God in the process.
When a well meaning pastor publically proclaims on Christian TV that “God had nothing to do with the events of September 11 2001”, he may have felt that he was protecting God from bad press among those who were asking searching questions but little did he realise that he was demeaning God, taking away His Absolute Sovereignty and in fact saying God had no power to stop rampant evil at best or He just didn’t care enough to prevent it! Both of which borders on outright heresy!
Joseph did not fall into such misguided thinking! He was in no doubt that both the prosperity and the want that followed were by the hand of God. Listen to what he said …
“This will happen just as I have described it, for God has revealed to Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do. The next seven years will be a period of great prosperity throughout the land of Egypt. But afterward there will be seven years of famine so great that all the prosperity will be forgotten in Egypt. Famine will destroy the land. This famine will be so severe that even the memory of the good years will be erased. As for having two similar dreams, it means that these events have been decreed by God, and he will soon make them happen.” (Genesis 41:28–32, NLT)
Beloved, if we have learnt nothing else from this series, I pray that we have been left in no doubt who is in control of the universe, in control of the world we live in and all the events that happen within it. GOD IS STILL ON HIS THRONE.
In this life we will not have all our questions answered; we will not have all the anomalies of life explained; we will not have all the inconsistencies that confront us solved but of this we need to be assured that God is on His throne … Yes, He may confound us, Yes, He may even confuse us, Yes, He may do things beyond our comprehension but remember He is God and hear what He says …
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8–9, NLT)
Says Paul … “Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!” (Romans 11:33, NLT)
I love what Steve Farrar says … “The God of the Bible is knowable, but He is also incomprehensible” (Steve Farrar – ‘God Built’ pg 171)
Hear what the Bible says, what God says about all of this? Please note that sensitive listeners may be deeply disturbed or even offended but this is the Word of God, check it out for yourself …
“I make light and create darkness. I make blessings and create disasters. I, the LORD, do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7, GW)
“Who can command things to happen without the Lord’s permission? Does not the Most High send both calamity and good?” (Lamentations 3:37–38, NLT)
“When the ram’s horn blows a warning, shouldn’t the people be alarmed? Does disaster come to a city unless the LORD has planned it?” (Amos 3:6, NLT)
““I kept the rain from falling when your crops needed it the most. I sent rain on one town but withheld it from another. Rain fell on one field, while another field withered away.” (Amos 4:7, NLT)
Beloved ask yourself …
• Who was responsible for the plagues of Egypt in the time of Moses? Remember, people got hurt!
• Who caused the walls of Jericho to fall down, whilst Joshua and the Israelites paraded around it?
• Who caused the sun to stand still for 12 hours allowing Joshua to finish the battle and wipe out the fleeing enemy?
• Who withheld rain for forty two months in the time of Elijah? People suffered through that drought!
• Who sent a plague of locusts in the time of Joel? Crops were wiped out, people suffered.
• Who stilled as turbulent storm to pacify frightened fishermen?
• Who darkened the sky for three hours in the middle of the day, whilst the Saviour hung on the cross?
• Who is still doing this throughout history?…Ask how the mightiest navy in the world intent upon invading England is destroyed without a shot from the bows of a ship or how could American troops under George Washington evacuate under the watchful eye of the British fleet as dawn broke across the river running alongside Brooklyn, New York.
• Who just a few weeks ago, stopped the blinding rain catapulted by raging winds resulting in almost zero visibility for less than 30 seconds whilst Joy and I safely crossed the dangerous temporary bypass on our way back from Cape St Francis at 21h00.
We may never this side of eternity understand why God allows disaster, why it falls on one place and not another but just as “… he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.” (Matthew 5:45b, NLT) so also disaster and calamity effects both the godly and the ungodly. But what we do know is that all circumstances are under His watchful eye and His sovereign control. God is on His throne! Do not let us in a ridiculous attempt to act as His PR’s dethrone Him.
This brings us to a second aspect. Joseph trusted God and
(SLIDE 4)
JOSEPH DID NOT DISHONOUR GOD
If then, as difficult as it is, we accept that God governs the universe and nothing either good or bad, blessing or disaster happens outside of His sovereign control; then is God responsible for evil? Can we lay at His door the blame for all the evil that permeates the world?
By no means! Although as Isaiah tells us God says … “I make light and create darkness. I make blessings and create disasters. I, the LORD, do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7, GW) … God’s very Nature excludes all evil. John tells us … “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5, ESV)
How then do we reconcile this? This was HABAKKUK’S DILEMMA … “Your eyes are too pure to look at evil. You can’t watch wickedness. Why do you keep watching treacherous people? Why are you silent when wicked people swallow those who are more righteous than they are?” (Habakkuk 1:13, GW)
Whilst God controls good and evil, in no way does He condone nor delight in wickedness; God is good and no way does any evil exist in Him. Evil is contrary to God’s holy, moral nature. However, he does not always stop evil from happening.
He allows Herod to behead James but Peter is miraculously allowed to escape from the high security prison.
Under Ezra, the rebuilding of the Temple is halted for ten years through the actions of enemies of the Jews.
Why He allows what He allows and does not allow what He does not … is part of His infinite wisdom born out of His unconditional love!
Joseph’s story is a classic in this regard and by God’s grace we are permitted to see some of His purposes being worked out. Why God allowed a drought with all its devastating consequences to be the means of bringing Jacob and His family to Egypt to form them into a nation, to enslave them for 400 years then free them to go to the Promised land to be the nation which would be the vehicle through which He would bring redemption through His Son to all nations of the world we do not fully understand. But what we do know is that EVERYTHING, GOOD OR EVIL THAT HAPPENS, HAPPENS ONLY THROUGH GOD’S DIVINE PERMISSION.
Margaret Clarkson, herself a lifelong sufferer of physical disabilities wrote … “The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock to which the suffering human heart must cling, The circumstances surrounding our lives are no accident: they may be the work of evil, but that evil is held firmly within the mighty hand of our sovereign God … All evil is subject to Him, and evil cannot touch His children unless He permits it. God is the Lord of human history and of the personal history of every member of His redeemed family” (Margaret Clarkson – Grace Grows better in Winter)
A word of caution! This does not deny or excuse our responsibility and accountability before God for the evil we do or the evil choices we may make. The evil that we may bring upon ourselves through flaunting the laws of nature that have been established by God to ensure the balance and dependability of the natural order or the evil we cause through disobedience of the revealed will of God, failure of which brings disaster on ourselves and others around us … we will one day have to give an account of before God.
He will hold to account all those who in any form perpetrate wickedness, evil or harm in this world. He may have allowed 9/11 to happen but all those responsible for it will be held accountable for it and will receive due punishment for it!
Such a concept of God’s sovereign control does, however, recognise the reality that God governs His universe as an infinitely wise, good, and powerful God. By controlling all events great and small, good and bad, in such a way that is perfectly consistent with His nature and for the benefit of His creation, God ensures that everything is ordered by His will and according to His benevolent purposes.
(SLIDE 5)
JOSEPH DID NOT DOUBT GOD
In order to trust God in all that was to come, Joseph did not dethrone God, nor did he dishonor God. He also did not doubt God. He knew no doubt that the famine would bring hardship and suffering to the entire region. He would no doubt have realised that His father and his family back in Canaan would be adversely affected. But Joseph knew that not only was God in control but He was using what was to happen as a means of implementing His purposes.
Remember what Joseph said to his brothers when he finally identified himself … “But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors.” (Genesis 45:5–7, NLT)
The God who allowed the famine, with all the hardship that accompanied it, was the same God who was working out His purposes, purpose to ultimately bring blessing.
God does not willingly bring grief and affliction upon people nor does he willingly allow suffering to fall upon innocent people… He is not only completely sovereign; he is also perfectly loving and infinitely wise.
Listen to the Psalmist … “God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you; unfailing love, O Lord, is yours.” (Psalm 62:11–12a, NLT)
Remember what we said at the beginning of the series…
GOD IN …
• HIS LOVE ALWAYS WANTS WHAT IS BEST FOR US
• HIS WISDOM ALWAYS KNOWS WHAT IS BEST FOR US
• HIS SOVEREIGNTY HAS THE POWER TO BRING ABOUT WHAT IS BEST FOR US
Sometimes this involves pain and suffering. Was there any other way to bring salvation to mankind than by placing our Saviour, His beloved Son on the Cross? God does not delight in causing pain and heartache … Listen to what He says
“For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.” (Lamentations 3:31–33, NLT)
GOD IS ALWAYS WORKING OUT ALL THINGS TO HIS GLORY AND OUR ULTIMATE GOOD. We may not see it now but one day when God vindicates Himself we will see it all and understand it all.
For now we need to accept what happens not fatalistically,
but trustingly knowing that our Heavenly Father knows what is best for us, because we know that He loves us and has our best interests at heart!
Steve Farrar tells the story of a medical doctor friend of his who has Lou Gehrig’s disease, a disease that normally takes two to three years to run its course. Those afflicted rapidly lose the ability to move and speak as the disease wastes away the muscles of the body. Steve Farrar says that the last thing he remembers his friend Paul saying was “Steve, this disease has saved my life. It is a gift from God. It was this disease that brought me to Him. Without it I would not have eternal life”
Does that mean that the effects of what happens are any easier to bear? No! But it does mean that we do know in whose hands our future lies and “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28, NLT).
Does that mean that we cannot pray and ask God to intervene in the calamities of life that beset us? No! But it does mean that when we do pray for God’s intervention it must be our Lord’s Gethsemane prayer … ““Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”” (Luke 22:42, NLT)
Does it mean we just passively accept the disasters that fall upon us and those we love? No! But it does mean having prayed in faith we willingly hand all things over to Him for He loves us and knows what is best for us, knowing come what may He is in control of my future!
“Because He lives (and is in control of my future) I can face tomorrow, Because He lives all fear is gone Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living just because He lives.” (Bill Gaither)
This is our confidence!
(SLIDE 6)
CONCLUSION
Habakkuk stood in his watch tower looking at all the evil going on around him, the wickedness of the Babylonians, disaster wherever he looked, he struggled to understand where God was in all that he saw around him. Although God never explained it to him, although he never fully understood what God was doing yet he was reminded that God was still in control, still on His Throne and he could trust him … “But the LORD is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.”” (Habakkuk 2:20, NLT)
He recognised that God was working out His purposes, purposes that were for God’s glory and for the benefit of His people and Habakkuk could therefore trust God and say … “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign LORD is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.” (Habakkuk 3:17–19, NLT)
Joseph trusted God for all that was to happen
Habakkuk did so also … TO WHAT EXTENT ARE YOU ABLE TO TRUST GOD WHEN THE FIG TREE DOES NOT BUD in the circumstances of your life?
(Next time … TRUSTING GOD … WHEN YOU COME TO THE END OF THE ROAD)
