Several years ago (July, 2008), Newsweek magazine printed a story about the most amazing exploit of tight-rope walker, Philippe Petit. They titled the story Man on Wire¸ and it described Petit’s secret plan in 1974 to extend a steel wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York. At the time, the towers were still under construction.
After much planning and practice, the day arrived. Petit and his fellow conspirators snuck to the top of the buildings, shot a wire across the vast, quarter-mile-high canyon that separated the North and South Towers, and Petit went to work. When all was said and done, Petit was on the wire for 45 minutes. Thousands gathered below to watch him. On each end of the wire, police waited for him to finish. Petit made eight passes before finally coming in. To this day he insists the stunt wasn't for publicity or even to see if he could do it. “The path is as important as the result,” he told a Newsweek magazine reporter.
Petit now lives in New York's Catskill Mountains. A wire stretches across his yard, and he still practices several hours a day. Petit told the same Newsweek reporter that it “never occurred to him to use a safety net” when walking the wire. Then he added something that really struck me funny. He said, “I never fall. But yes, I have landed on the earth many, many times.” (Jennie Yabroff, “He Had New York at His Feet,” Newsweek magazine, 7-28-08, pp. 50-51; www.PreachingToday.com)
I like that. To fall means you have failed, but to land on the earth means you can get back up again. So what do you do when you “have landed on the earth,” so to speak? What do you do to get back up again when you get in trouble? What do you do to recover when difficult times come? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 26, Genesis 26, where Isaac, an Old Testament Believer, found himself in a bit of trouble.
Genesis 26:1 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. (ESV)
Isaac did exactly what his father, Abraham, had done 80 or 90 years previously. During a time of drought and famine, he went to Gerar on his way to Egypt in search of greener pastures. But God met him along the way!
Genesis 26:2-5 And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” (ESV)
This is the same promise God made to His father, Abraham, on Mount Moriah, the place where Isaac was nearly sacrificed to the Lord. It was a promise of land, seed, and blessing even in the place of famine and sacrifice. The question is: Would Isaac believe God, like his father did, despite his circumstances?
Genesis 26:6 So Isaac settled in Gerar. (ESV)
Isaac did indeed believe God. That’s why he did exactly what God told him to do – Isaac stayed in Gerar. Isaac trusted in the Lord in his time of trouble, and that’s what you need to do in your times of trouble, as well.
TRUST IN THE LORD.
Like Isaac, rely on God’s promises. Depend on God’s word, enough to do exactly what God tells us to do.
Pastor Dave Stone talks about a time when he took his family to a local swimming pool. He was down in the deep end by the diving board swimming around, and his four-year-old, Savannah, came tottering into the shallow end of the pool. She couldn’t swim then, but she was wearing those big orange “floaties.” There was no way she could sink with those huge orange floties.
Savannah came down the steps, and as soon as she got out there in the water, she said, “Daddy, I'm scared. I want to come where you are.”
Her dad chuckled at her naivete and said, “Savannah, it's a lot deeper down here.”
She said, “I don't care. I want to be where you are.”
“Okay, come on,” Dave said.
She began dog-paddling across the pool... three-foot... six-foot... nine-foot... 12-foot-deep water. When she came up to her dad, she grabbed his neck, and her look of panic gave way to relief. Next to her father she felt secure, and it made very little difference how deep or how dangerous the water was. (Dave Stone, “Keep the Dust Off the Highchair,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 143; www.PreachingToday.com)
Next to your Heavenly Father, you are secure! It doesn’t matter how deep or dangerous your circumstances are. So cling to Him. Trust your heavenly Father.
On Christmas day, 1939, when the whole world stood on the brink of war, King George VI of England addressed the British commonwealth. Hitler was on the move. Doom and gloom filled the air. Even so, as part of his speech, King George quoted these words from Minnie Louise Haskins:
“I said to the man at the gate of the year, ‘Give me a light that I might walk safely into the unknown.’ And he said to me, ‘Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God. It shall be to you safer than the light and better than the known way.’” (“The King’s Christmas Speech,” The National WWII Museum, New Orleans, See and Hear: Museum Blog, December 17, 2011)
These are scary, uncertain times, but God has not abdicated His throne, and He knows what’s best.
Haskins’ poem goes on to say:
God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision. (Minnie Louise Haskins, God Knows)
So put your hand into the hand of God and find your rest in Him! Trust the Lord as you walk into an uncertain future. And by faith, just do what He tells you to do.
It didn’t make sense for Isaac to stay in Gerar during a time of drought when the fertile valley of the Nile lay right before him. But Isaac stayed in Gerar, because God told him to. He trusted God enough to do what God said, and God provided!
Alison Ritch, of Birmingham, Alabama, talks about a time when her husband and she were about to start grad school. As she put it, they were “hoping to squeak through school together living on love and Taco Bell.” She was in desperate need for new computer, so for her birthday that July, they decided to ask their families for money for a new laptop. They were quite generous, and Alison received $720, enough to buy a nice, new computer.
In the meantime, their only car, an old Nissan pick-up truck, broke down. They left the truck with a mechanic who later called with an estimate for fixing the truck. It was more than they had expected, and they didn’t know where they would get the money.
Soon after that, Alison told a friend about her plans to buy a laptop computer with the money she had received for her birthday. As it turned out, Alison’s friend had recently purchased a new computer, so she offered Alison her old laptop. Alison thanked her but dismissed the offer. She had her sights on a shiny, new computer and was not interested in used one, even though it was more than adequate to help her with her research in graduate school.
That night, Alison and her husband were trying to figure out how they could scrape some money together to fix their truck. Then it dawned on Alison that she could take her friend’s old computer and use her birthday money to fix the truck. Alison really didn’t want to do it, but she said, “I knew the Holy Spirit was telling me to surrender my plans, and I knew that insisting on my own way would be saying ‘no’ to him.” So she yielded to the Spirit's prompting, and as soon as she did, she suddenly remembered the number she had jotted down from the mechanic: $720. God knew she needed a computer. He also knew she and her husband needed a repaired truck, so He gave them both. God provided a free computer, and He gave them the exact amount of money – to the dollar – that they needed to fix their truck.
Alison just had to surrender her own selfish desires and accept what God had to offer. She writes, “God wanted to bless me. He provided just what I needed in ways I couldn't have anticipated, but my greed almost kept me from receiving that blessing.” (Alison Ritch, Birmingham, Alabama; www.PreachingToday.com)
Please, don’t miss out on God’s blessing, because you insist on doing it your own way. In times of trouble, depend on God enough to do it HIS way even if it doesn’t make sense to you. Believe God enough to do what He says. When difficult times come, trust in the Lord like Isaac did. But unlike Isaac…
DON’T TRUST IN A LIE.
Don’t rely on your own manipulative schemes. Don’t depend on deceit and duplicity to get by.
You see, even though Isaac trusted God enough to stay in Gerar, he found himself in the middle of Philistine territory where he feared for his life. So Isaac lied to protect himself.
Genesis 26:7 When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. (ESV)
He told the same lie his father Abraham did years before. In fact, Abraham told the lie twice! – first, when he was in Egypt (Genesis 12); and a second time, when he was in this same place, in Gerar (Genesis 20).
Fathers, be careful what you do, because your children will do what you do more than what you say. Isaac was afraid, so he lied to protect himself, a lesson he learned from his father.
Genesis 26:8 When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. (ESV)
Now, that word for “laughing” is an interesting word in the original Hebrew language. It’s a word play on Isaac’s name, which means laughter. And in this context the word describes the fun Isaac and Rebekah were having together as they were getting ready to make love.
In another context, the same word describes the laughter of ridicule and derision. Just a few chapters earlier, the same word describes what Isaac’s stepbrother, Ishmael, was doing to him. He was mocking Isaac (Genesis 21:9). He was laughing at Isaac.
So here, in a sense, Isaac is mocking God. God had just promised him land, seed and blessing, but Isaac’s lie makes a mockery of that promise. It’s as if that promise was worthless in Isaac’s mind, because Isaac resorts to deceit to protect himself, rather than trusting in God’s Word. Well, Isaac is only fooling himself. Abimelech, the Philistine king, sees right through Isaac’s charade and confronts him with it.
Genesis 26:9-11 So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’ ” Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” (ESV)
Be sure your sin will find you out every time! (Num. 32:23). Abimelech acted with more integrity that Isaac did, and it really put Isaac in a bad light.
Please don’t do it! When you find yourself in trouble, don’t trust in a lie like Isaac did. Don’t lie to protect yourself, because it is absolutely unnecessary when you have the promises of God.
You may not fear death, like Isaac did, but so many people fear rejection or ridicule or simply the negative opinions of others. So they lie to protect themselves from those negative opinions. They try to cover up their mistakes. Or they make commitments they cannot keep, because they don’t want people to think they’re not committed. And then, when they don’t get it done, they make excuses all in an effort to make themselves seem less culpable than they really are.
I like Vance Havner’s definition of an excuse. He says, “An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.” He’s absolutely right, and such lies make a mockery of God, who has promised to take care of you no matter what. Please, don’t resort to lies to protect yourself from criticism or any other threat.
On August 13, 2004, Hurricane Charley brought fierce destruction to areas of Florida. During the storm, 25-year-old Danny Williams went outside to seek protection under the branches of a 55-year old banyan tree. It had been a favorite, peaceful place for the Fort Meyers man, but on that day, his place of safety became a death trap. The tree fell on Williams and killed him. (Palatka Daily News, 8-18-04; www.PreachingToday. com)
That’s the way it is when you seek protection under a lie. In the end, it becomes a death trap. It kills your integrity. It kills your reputation, and soon people learn not to trust you at all.
There’s an old story about a bank, which employed four young men and an older man in their trust department. The directors of the bank had decided to promote the older employee and put one of the younger men in charge of the trust department with a substantial increase in salary. They decided to notify the young man of his promotion at 4 o’clock that afternoon.
At noon, the young man went to a cafeteria nearby for lunch. One of the directors was behind him in line with several other customers in between. The director saw the young man select his food, including a small pad of butter, which he flipped on his plate and covered with some food. That way he wouldn’t be charged for the butter.
Now, there was no reason for that young man to do that. He had a good position at the bank. He was on his way up. He was respected by his co-workers, and he had job security! But he made a mockery of it all when he hid the butter. He never would have missed the few cents it would have cost him, but he lied about it anyway.
That afternoon, the directors of the bank fired him instead of promoting him. They couldn’t trust a man who lies to work in their trust department, much less head it up.
Your lies will always do you more harm than good. Besides, they make a mockery of God, who promises you eternal security in Christ.
A few years ago (June 2016), a man robbed the SunTrust Bank in Rockville, Virginia. He walked into the bank just before noon wearing a hoodie and an obviously fake beard. He passed a note to a teller that threatened harm if the teller did not do what he said. He was able to make off with some cash, but he had trouble with his beard. A witness said, “It kept slipping off, making it slightly easier to see his face.” The Huffington Post reporter, writing about the incident, started his article with these words: Robbing a bank is hard enough without having to deal with a fake beard continuously falling off during the hold-up. (David Moye, “This Clumsy Bank Robber Can’t Keep His Fake Beard On His Face,” HuffPost, 6-10-16; www.PreachingToday.com)
My dear friends, living life is hard enough without having to deal with the fake stuff we put on, trying to make ourselves look better. Please, when you get in trouble, trust in the Lord, don’t trust in a lie.
Bruce Waltke talks about the time he once rescued a wren from the claws of their family cat. Though its wing was broken, the frightened bird struggled to escape his loving hands. He contrasted that with his daughter's recent trip to the doctor. Her strep throat meant a shot was necessary. Frightened, she cried, “No Daddy. No, Daddy. No, Daddy.” But all the while she gripped him tightly around the neck. Bruce Waltke said, “Pain ought to make us more like a sick child than a hurt bird.” (Leadership, Vol. 6, no. 2; www.PreachingToday.com)
In these days, cling tightly to the Lord. He knows what’s best, and He will take care of you.
